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Recent Posts
- Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann 1945-2022
- UBC Campus Vision 2050, in a word, lacks vision
- Louis Nirenberg (1925-2020)
- UBC: The ill-fated revolt of those who ought to know better
- Shiny, happy, oblivious science
- NSERC has lost its bearings … again
- The Learning & Research of the UBC Board of Governors (II)
- The Learning & Research committee of the UBC Board: What a difference a year makes (I)
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- A research community at the mercy of a leaderless NSERC
- A busy first four months on the UBC Board of Governors
- Academic publishing in the time of sanctions and boycotts
- Maurice Sion: 1927 – 2018
- Robert M. Miura: 1938 – 2018
- When the Walls of Governance Come Crumbling Down
- Why I am voting against the tuition increases for domestic students
- Resignation of the director of the Wall Institute: The reaction
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Category Archives: Honouring friends
Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann 1945-2022
My friend and fellow mathematician, Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann, passed away peacefully on the 17th of June. She had been suffering from Parkinson disease since 2007. Nicole received her Master’s (1968) and Ph.D. (1974) degrees from Warsaw University, where she held … Continue reading
Posted in Banff International Research Station, Honouring friends
Tagged Mathematics
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Louis Nirenberg (1925-2020)
By Professor Ivar Ekeland, le 17 Avril 2020 Nous sommes nombreux, en ce jour de janvier, à avoir reçu le message : « Louis est mort cette nuit ». On ne parlait pas encore du COVID-19, qui était encore confiné … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends, Uncategorized
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Maurice Sion: 1927 – 2018
Maurice Sion was a very dear friend and a distinguished colleague in the mathematics department at the University of British Columbia. He died peacefully in his sleep on April 20, 2018. Maurice retired from UBC in 1989, after a career … Continue reading
Robert M. Miura: 1938 – 2018
I just got word that my friend and colleague, Robert Miura, passed away on November 25th. Robert was born in Selma, California, to an immigrant family from Japan. When he was three years old, he and his family were sent … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends
4 Comments
Did you say, Father’s day?
Last Monday, I wasn’t feeling great, so I asked a good friend of mine to come over and give me company, which he promptly did. Yes, this may be uncommon in this part of the world, but both he and … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends
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Interview with a mathematician: Nassif Ghoussoub
Originally posted on The Intrepid Mathematician:
Nassif Ghoussoub is the founder and current director of the Banff International Research Station, the founding director of the Pacific Institute of Mathematics, and the co-founder of MITACS NCE. On top of all that,…
Posted in Banff International Research Station, Honouring friends, R&D Policy
Tagged Arvind Gupta, Beit Chebab, BIRS, CFREF, CMO, Conacyt, Mathematics, Mitacs, Nigel Lloyd, NSERC, NSF, Oaxaca, Ono, Order of Canada, PIMS, Riemann Hypothesis, science, Tom Brzustowski, UBC
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A life of mathematics and computation: Jon Borwein
Originally posted on The Intrepid Mathematician:
There was sad news this week with the passing of Jonathan Borwein on Tuesday, August 2, 2016. Jon Borwein in his lab at University of Newcastle, Australia. Jon was a powerhouse mathematician and computer scientist who…
Posted in Honouring friends
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Humbled and Proud
All I could think of when the phone call from the Governor General office came was the friendly face of the immigration officer who signed my residence papers more than 36 years ago. I hadn’t applied for a refugee’s visa, … Continue reading
Posted in Banff International Research Station, Honouring friends
Tagged BIRS, Mitacs, Order of Canada, PIMS
7 Comments
A few words at a happy event
Thank you, Mme. Chancellor. Thank You, Mr. President, and Thank you, University of Victoria, for this tremendous honour. I obviously have many connections to UVic, but I should start by mentioning a very special one.
Posted in Banff International Research Station, Honouring friends
Tagged Alan Turing, Alex McCauley, Ed Perkins, Emmy Noether, G.H. Hardy, Honorary Doctor of Science, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, John Nash, Martin Taylor, Ramanujan, Reinhard Illner, Sophie Germain, The University of Victoria
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Light years from the academy
To Joseph on his 20th birthday Leaning over a game of Backgammon in the main square of this remote mountain village of the Levant, the four unemployed teenagers didn’t see it coming. Youssef Habib lunged at them from the back … Continue reading
The last graceful act of a beautiful mind
Sunday morning, May 24th: I am having breakfast with a life-long friend, Ivar Ekeland, at his kitchen table in Paris, France. He was just back from Oslo, and was telling me about the ceremony for the 2015 Abel prize, he … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends
Tagged Abel Prize, Ivar Ekeland, John Nash, Louis Nirenberg, Nobel prize Economics
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Highlights from the installation speech of UBC’s 13th President, Arvind Gupta
Here are excerpts from the speech of Arvind Gupta at his official installation as UBC’s 13th president. Canada’s post-secondary system should take notice. “We recognize UBC as a Place of Mind, but also as a place of shared cultures, traditions, and … Continue reading
UBC appoints a doer as its 13th President
Once again, UBC has steered clear of appointing a career university administrator for its top position. Unlike UofT and UVic, who opted for the ultimate insiders, and McGill, who went for a consummate bureaucrat, UBC has chosen to appoint a … Continue reading
Thank You Notes
The conference held at UBC on the occasion of my 60th birthday has come and gone, and I am still overwhelmed by the generosity and friendship shown by all attendees and organizers. And I am still awed by the powerful, deep and … Continue reading
Canadian Common CV: NSERC vs. Linkedin
“I hope you write a blog post about the shameful time NSERC is wasting for all of us dealing with the Canadian Common CV website!!!” My friend was referring to NSERC’s new “Portal” to be used to “manage application and peer review … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends, Op-eds
26 Comments
Bill, Joram, Olek, Ted and Bob
I am not posting today about Budget 2013 as many of you may have expected. I am writing instead about friendship, scholarship and death. Today, I was planning to drive down to Seattle to participate in a memorial service for a … Continue reading
Posted in Honouring friends
Tagged Alexander Pelczynski, Joram Lindenstrauss, Robert Phelps, Ted Odell, William J Davis
2 Comments
Ted Odell
Originally posted on Gowers's Weblog:
I was shocked and saddened to hear about a week ago that Ted Odell, a mathematician to whom I owe a lot, died suddenly on January 9th of a heart attack while he was…
Posted in Honouring friends
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In memory of Hugh C. Morris
“It is with great sadness that I write to inform you that in the early morning of December 23, my beloved father, and a man whom I know you knew very well, passed away.” That was Sue informing me yesterday … Continue reading
“Stock options” in the business of building research capacity
A highlight of my latest visit to Ottawa was a reunion with my friends and former brothers-in-arms, Don Dawson and Luc Vinet, at the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal Ceremony. Our role in founding the MITACS network back in another millennium … Continue reading
Piece of Mind 