Unfortunately I come back to news of a loss of a young member of the complexity community. Mikhail Alekhnovich died in a white-water rafting accident in Russia on August 5. Misha, who just finished his first year as an assistant professor at UCSD Math, had some very deep results in theory, most notably in propositional proof complexity.
Misha did his postdoctoral work at the Institute for Advanced Study and the IAS theory page has more on this tragedy.
I heard about it a few days back. Hope his soul rest in peace.
ReplyDeletea white-water kayaking accident, to be precise.
ReplyDelete(Apparently he was a very experienced white-water paddler...)
If you read Russian:
http://www.x-lifestyle.com/?page=51&lang=1&id=1740
R.I.P.
(Can you explain why it is called white-water and not just water? )
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Coz it's so unsteady that looks white! You can read more in, say, wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater>
ReplyDeleteI heard him give a talk once. He seemed like he had a very bright future ahead of him.
ReplyDeleteR.I.P.
The way he progressed is evidence enough to suggest that he had a bright future ahead of him. Sometimes nature is cruel.
ReplyDeleteI pray for his family and relatives. Rest in peace Misha.
SKU
You can get a feeling for his adventurous nature from his photos at http://www.math.ias.edu/~misha/photos/album.html
ReplyDeleteI like to read his papers.
ReplyDeleteR.I.P
"Not to mention the rest, Misha was one of most well-known specialists in computer science from Russia, and not only in his generation, but in general also.
ReplyDeleteHow untimely...", Alexander Shen replied