[Axiom-developer] Passing of Dr. Gilbert Baumslag

[daly]

Gilbert Baumslag is the person who supported the development of
the open source version of Axiom, Magnus, and Doyen, 3 open source
projects I lead. I worked with Gilbert for several years at City
College of New York as part of his Center for Algorithms and
Interactive Scientific Software (CAISS). 

He was a joy to work with. I am sad to see him go.

This is the announcement from CCNY:
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The Department of Mathematics marks with profound sadness 
the passing of Distinguished Professor Emeritus Gilbert 
Baumslag.

Professor Baumslag joined the department in 1973 as a 
Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and stayed with us 
until 2006 when he joined the CCNY Department of Computer 
Science. He was founding director of the Center for 
Algorithms and Interactive Scientific Software, which grew 
out of the MAGNUS computational group theory project he 
headed. MAGNUS was funded by the National Science
Foundation for 10 years. Dr. Baumslag was for more than 40 
years the primary organizer of the New York Group Theory 
Seminar, considered the foremost research seminar in group 
theory in the world. He was a visiting scholar at the 
Institute for Advanced Study in 1968-69, and
was inducted in 2012 as a member of the inaugural class of 
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society.

Gilbert Baumslag made many outstanding contributions to 
infinite group theory, particularly to the study of 
finitely presented groups. Many of these groups have nice 
algorithmic properties, with applications to cryptography 
and computer security and control. He published more
than 160 scientific papers, and numerous books and 
monographs; he graduated 30 doctoral students.

Dr. Baumslag was a popular teacher and an outgoing 
research instigator who generously shared his insights. He 
had a profound impact on the research and careers of many 
colleagues, as well as students who became colleagues. We 
will miss him.

There will be a memorial at the GC following Friday's
group theory seminar next week.