Jump to content

Yousef Alavi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yousef Alavi
Born(1928-03-19)March 19, 1928
Iran
DiedMay 21, 2013(2013-05-21) (aged 85)
NationalityIranian-American
Alma materMichigan State University (PhD, 1958)
Known forCombinatorics, graph theory
AwardsDistinguished Service Award, Michigan Section of the MAA (1987)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsWestern Michigan University

Yousef Alavi (March 19, 1928 – May 21, 2013)[1] was an Iranian born American mathematician who specialized in combinatorics and graph theory. He received his PhD from Michigan State University in 1958.[2] He was a professor of mathematics at Western Michigan University from 1958 until his retirement in 1996;[3] he chaired the department from 1989 to 1992.[4]

Alavi was known for complaining that "this is highly irregular!" He was also a frequent host for Paul Erdős on his visits to Western Michigan. On one of these visits, these two things came together: he made his usual complaint at a time when Erdős and Ronald Graham were present. This sparked a discussion on what it might mean for a graph to be highly irregular, kicking off a line of joint research on highly irregular graphs through which Alavi obtained Erdős number one.[5]

In 1987, he received the first Distinguished Service Award of the Michigan Section of the Mathematical Association of America due to his 30 years of service to the MAA; at that time, the Michigan House and Senate issued a special resolution honoring him.[6]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Yousef Alavi", Kalamazoo Gazette, May 23, 2013.
  2. ^ Yousef Alavi at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ Emeritus faculty Archived 2009-07-02 at the Wayback Machine, Western Michigan University mathematics department.
  4. ^ History of the department, Western Michigan University mathematics department.
  5. ^ Schechter, Bruce (2000), My Brain is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdős, Simon and Schuster, p. 197, ISBN 9780684859804
  6. ^ Michigan Section's Award Recipients.