tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Dan Quillen)

deane.yang comments on "Dan Quillen" (14492)

deane.yang — Sat, 14 May 2011 10:23:01 -0700

Todd, agreed.

Todd Trimble comments on "Dan Quillen" (14485)

Todd Trimble — Fri, 13 May 2011 23:08:11 -0700

Ditto what Ben said in his edit. Clearly I meant no disrespect either.

deane.yang comments on "Dan Quillen" (14481)

deane.yang — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:10:40 -0700

Ok. Let's drop this. Ben was clearly kidding.

markvs comments on "Dan Quillen" (14480)

markvs — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:09:34 -0700

@Ben: an_mo_user is right. Although in any other threat comments like yours or Todd Trimble's would be permissible and even nice, in this particular threat, your comments belong to the gray area between extremely silly and moderately idiotic.

Ben Webster comments on "Dan Quillen" (14479)

Ben Webster — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:55:58 -0700

hmm, that came out a bit more invasive than I had intended...I was joking that anything is on-topic if you put it in the title. After all, discussion of Dan Quillen isn't precisely relevant to MathOverflow either.

EDIT: Mark's comment also reminded me that this is a particularly bad thread for flippancy. I apologize if that offended anyone. I didn't mean any disrespect to Dan Quillen.

an_mo_user comments on "Dan Quillen" (14474)

an_mo_user — Fri, 13 May 2011 04:25:16 -0700

While in general I have nothing at all against discussions of the type in which this thread developped lately, I have to say I find them not fitting for this particular thread.

Todd Trimble comments on "Dan Quillen" (14473)

Todd Trimble — Fri, 13 May 2011 03:42:12 -0700

@Pete: "Don't you have math to think about?" would be a great rejoinder to some of the questions that get asked at MO! (More off-topic; sorry.)

Pete L. Clark comments on "Dan Quillen" (14472)

Pete L. Clark — Fri, 13 May 2011 01:15:20 -0700

In turn, I would suggest "Really, don't you have math to think about and your own business to mind?" should suffice for the idly curious.

grp comments on "Dan Quillen" (14471)

grp — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:23:40 -0700

To quell speculation, I offer that my father's brother's last name is Douglass (so it is different from my father's surname). The short version is that my grandmother remarried after the birth of my uncle. I won't speculate on Deane's situation, but suggest that the above suffice for the idly curious.

Gerhard "My Father's Last Name Is" Paseman, 2011.05.12

deane.yang comments on "Dan Quillen" (14470)

deane.yang — Thu, 12 May 2011 18:28:58 -0700

Heh. But even if you do that, I will claim that it's off topic for meta-MO (or is *any* topic fair game on this site?). I'm more than happy to tell people who are my friends, but I'm reluctant to broadcast the story in a public forum. So if you stumble onto someone who claims to be a good friend of mine, you can test their claim by asking them for the story (they're allowed to repeat it).

Ben Webster comments on "Dan Quillen" (14465)

Ben Webster — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:51:30 -0700

I'm now extremely tempted to start a thread with the title "Why does Deane Yang's brother have a different last name?" Then it would be on-topic.

deane.yang comments on "Dan Quillen" (14464)

deane.yang — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:24:17 -0700

Sorry, Ryan but it is a long story and too far off topic here.

Ryan Reich comments on "Dan Quillen" (14463)

Ryan Reich — Thu, 12 May 2011 12:42:01 -0700

Deane, this is off topic, but why are you Yang and your brother Chang?

deane.yang comments on "Dan Quillen" (14456)

deane.yang — Thu, 12 May 2011 07:50:59 -0700

Apparently, Ken had already told the obit editor about Quillen.

deane.yang comments on "Dan Quillen" (14455)

deane.yang — Thu, 12 May 2011 07:25:53 -0700

Ravi, you're absolutely right. Unfortunately, Quillen's contributions to mathematics are a bit arcane, and it is always difficult to convince the Times to write about the more abstract aspects of mathematics. I have sent Kenneth Chang (who is my brother and writes many obits of mathematicians) an email asking if it is still possible to write one on Quillen.

Ravi Boppana comments on "Dan Quillen" (14452)

Ravi Boppana — Wed, 11 May 2011 18:41:42 -0700

My condolences to Professor Quillen's family.

Is anyone else surprised that Professor Quillen's death seems to have gone unmentioned by the major newspapers? I sent a message to the New York Times "news tip" address 4 days ago, but I haven't seen an obituary there or elsewhere.

AndrewL comments on "Dan Quillen" (14450)

AndrewL — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:45:50 -0700

@Pete Fortunately,our understanding of the biochemical basis of this disease has vastly improved in the last 20 years,which has lead to the development of the first effective drug treatments. The frustrating-though sadly predictable-part of that the basic research on the nuts and bolts of the causes of the disease has taken a back seat to drug development. As if the key breakthrough has been made and now all we have to do is make marketable pills. It's sad because as you can see in Dr.Quillen's case,there are still many cases where the drugs are only partially effective.

I personally believe no one should be forced to ride this ride called life one second longer then you want to.

But if they allowed that,within 10 years, there wouldn't be enough humans left to successfully propogate the species................

Pete L. Clark comments on "Dan Quillen" (14441)

Pete L. Clark — Tue, 10 May 2011 11:28:12 -0700

@sisn: I have known too many people, inside mathematics and out, who have died much younger than 70. (Within the mathematical community, I was probably hit hardest by the death of Joost van Hamel, who was 39. It's been more than three years since his passing, and I'm not feeling any better about it yet.) On average we get a little more time than that, and we are certainly hoping for more.

To me the worst part by far is the Alzheimer's. What a nightmare. If anyone is listening, that is absolutely not the way I want to go. A nice peaceful passing in my sleep would be ideal, but in a pinch I would happily accept a hiking accident provided the end was quick and clean.

sisn comments on "Dan Quillen" (14440)

sisn — Tue, 10 May 2011 03:39:59 -0700

Rest in Peace Prof Quillen.
Thats sad news, he was quite young also.

AndrewL comments on "Dan Quillen" (14432)

AndrewL — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:42:50 -0700

We've truly lost a giant in algebra and topology. It's not an understatement to say Quillen is the father of modern axiomatic homotopy theory. For that alone, he should be mentioned several times in the future histories of mathematics. But of course, he was responsible for so much more.

The remarkable progress made over the last 2 decades in the treatment of this illness has lulled many of us into a false sense of accomplishment,that Alzheimer's is no longer a scourge on people's lives. The fate of Professor Quillen is a stark reminder of the utter falsehood of this statement.

Let's mourn his passing and hope it helps illustrate just how much further we need to go before this plague on the elderly can be conquered. I also think it'd be a very gracious gesture to organize a seminar around homotopical algebra and model categories in his honor at MIT.

Koundinya Vajjha comments on "Dan Quillen" (14417)

Koundinya Vajjha — Fri, 06 May 2011 05:29:15 -0700

RIP Professor Quillen. May your soul rest in peace.

Todd Trimble comments on "Dan Quillen" (14387)

Todd Trimble — Tue, 03 May 2011 07:20:49 -0700

RIP, Professor Quillen. I was very saddened to learn of his last days -- Alzheimer's is a truly devastating disease.

Harry Gindi comments on "Dan Quillen" (14386)

Harry Gindi — Tue, 03 May 2011 05:37:59 -0700

I'm not sure how appropriate this is to post on meta, but I just found out this morning. Andre Joyal posted it on the categories mailing list, forwarding a message from Dan Quillen's wife:

Dear friends and colleagues,

My husband of almost 50 years, Daniel Gray Quillen died quietly and peacefully on Saturday morning around 7 AM, April 30, 2011 at the age of 70. He is finally at rest and no longer suffering. In the last week of his life he was wonderfully cared for by the people of Haven Hospice. My son David, daughter-in-law Amy, daughter Cindy and I were constantly at his side. Dan died from the final stages of Alzheimer's and the associated complications. We were able to follow his wishes of comfort and not making his suffering last any longer than nature had planned.

Alzheimer's is truly a terrible disease. It was very hard to watch what it did to Dan over the past 5+ years. It stole the things he loved and took him from me too early. It first took his ability to do mathematics, then ability to play music, read, rational thinking and finally recognition of those he loved (except me, thank goodness).

I have no plans for an organized service. Dan's body has been donated to medical science, following his clear and long standing wishes. If the mathematics community would like to organize a memorial service or a memorial colloquium we would be very pleased.

Please do not send flowers. I don't know what I would do with them. If people feel that they would like to do something, I would very much support any assistance to your local hospice or to Haven Hospice

www.havenhospice.org/donate_now.html

or Alzheimer's research

www.alz.org/join_the_cause_donate.asp.

The work that hospice does in amazing and finding an answer to this awful disease is unbelievably important.

Thank you for all your support and friendship recently and for almost 50 years.

Jean

Anyway, three cheers for Dan Quillen. I don't drink, but I'm going to buy some malt liquor and pour it out tonight in his memory.