I started graduate school in 1985 at Berkeley and Steven was the unofficial student leader of the theory group when I arrived and I got a taste of his optimistic style before I moved to MIT the following summer. I'd see Rudich at various conferences and during visits to each other's institutions. I first learned about natural proofs from a talk he gave at the University of Chicago and we had many debates about its importance for years. Alas health issues took their toll and we lost one of the great researchers and personalities in our field.
Impagliazzo has been a friend and colleague of Steven's since they were both undergrads at Wesleyan and we asked him to write a guest post about Steven. Russell sent us a very honest and personal 7-page writeup. Too long for a blog post but I strongly recommend reading this powerful story. Also see Scott Aaronson's memories.
Russell's write-up is very moving, RIP
ReplyDeleteVery strong and personal write up by Russell. People unfamiliar with the person would not have accepted so many ups and downs for a U.S. born and based academic. V sorry to hear about last years distancing. Sometimes I feel people in our industry don’t have people skills to truly accommodate for rare cases like these.
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