A very graceful eulogy. Best regards,
Peter Stahlecker On Mon 11. Mar 2024 at 20:03, Aaron Meurer <asmeu...@gmail.com> wrote: > The passing of Kalevi Suominen truly a loss for the SymPy community. > > I had the honor of meeting Kalevi face to face once on a video call > many years ago, but other than that, like everyone else, I primarily > interacted with him online. Kalevi was always known in the SymPy > community as the mathematics expert. As a retired professor of > mathematics, his knowledge greatly assisted the development of some of > the deep mathematical areas in SymPy, such as the polynomials and > group theory modules. He was always available to give advice whenever > I was unsure of some part of SymPy that was outside of my domain of > expertise. I was always impressed by the breadth of his mathematical > knowledge, as well as his skill as a Python programmer, a combination > which can be rare to see. > > Yet despite being easily the most mathematically adept member of the > community, he never lorded it over us, but always approached every > interaction with kindness and humility. He considered himself to be an > equal and as both a teacher and a learner. He can be a model for the > sort of contributor and community member we should all strive to be, > and our project was truly lucky to have him. > > I found some of the papers and books he wrote on Google Scholar > > https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C32&q=Kalevi+Suominen&oq= > and MathSciNet (but this requires a subscription to view, which I do > not have) https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet/MRAuthorID/209375. He > never mentioned this work, and it seems like most of it deals with > technical mathematical areas which are not directly relevant to SymPy. > > I'll close on the following paragraphs from Kalevi himself, which I > found in an old private email from 2018, on why he contributed to > SymPy: > > > Being retired, I consider myself lucky as I can work with open code > > on my own time with no pressure. It seems that many pensioners find > > themselves a hobby. This is what suits me. > > > > I originally came across SymPy when searching for a mathematical > > library for experimenting with some algorithms. It was (almost) > > "love at first sight". It does not matter that the language, Python, > > is not the most efficient one. It is easy to work with, and very much > > readable. Readability is important to me as it helps in finding > > errors. (That is what I had been doing for a great part of my > > professional life.) It was also of importance to me that functions > > would look familiar, sin(x), not Sin[x]. Instead of simply using > > SymPy I finally found myself wanting to improve the library, > > but that is another story. > > Aaron Meurer > > > On Sun, Mar 10, 2024 at 10:31 AM Oscar Benjamin > <oscar.j.benja...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Hi all SymPy community, > > > > It is with great sadness that I bring the news that Kalevi Suominen > > (@jksuom on GitHub) passed away on the 4th of March. Kalevi's son > > Risto passed on this news to me and some others by email yesterday. > > > > I never met Kalevi in person but we had many conversations online over > > many years. Kalevi was an outstanding SymPy contributor and was > > involved with the project long before me and so there are others here > > who have known him much longer than I have. Kalevi guided many SymPy > > contributors and supervised many GSOC students over many years. > > Looking in the git history his earliest commit was from almost exactly > > 10 years ago. > > > > Personally I learnt a huge amount from Kalevi and I am very grateful > > for the time he took to teach me and others and to guide the project > > generally. Kalevi's expertise in many areas of Mathematics and across > > the full depth of many parts of the SymPy codebase was unmatched > > within the community. > > > > Interacting through GitHub I guess that many of us did not realise > > that Kalevi's health was in decline. He continued to be involved > > including most recently reviewing a pull request just 6 weeks ago. A > > few weeks ago he sent me some files with what he was most recently > > working on but was no longer able to finish. I will try to complete > > that work and submit it as Kalevi's final pull request. > > > > Kalevi's passing is a huge loss to SymPy but I don't want to dwell on > > that. Instead I invite those of us who have known Kalevi to share > > their thoughts and memories here. > > > > Oscar > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "sympy" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email to sympy+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CAHVvXxTRWVQp_N_0%3DNnf-yBJwSu373sw-NB7UKuZCks2HTHGaA%40mail.gmail.com > . > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "sympy" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to sympy+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CAKgW%3D6%2Bn9hbbk2OsPqUfoJUUmrSbB1Znrx_42wgexghtYXMF6w%40mail.gmail.com > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sympy" group. 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