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February 2019

20190218
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Prof. Józef Siciak Memorial Session

Date: 18.02.2019
Place: JU Institute of Mathematics, ul. prof. Stanisława Łojasiewicza 6 (room 1094)
Organiser: JU Institute of Mathematics
Prof. Józef Siciak Memorial Session

The Jagiellonian University Institute of Mathematics is holding an academic session commemorating the late Professor Józef Siciak – one of the most eminent mathematicians in the University’s history, who educated many of the current members of the JU Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, an outstanding lecturer and academic supervisor.

Session programme:

  • 10.15 a.m. - 12.00 noon – special seminar session of the Department of Mathematical Analysis (presentation of the history of the Department and the achievements of Prof. Siciak’s students, lecture by Prof. Sławomir Kołodziej: “Siciak extremal function and capacities”),
  • 12.00 noon - 1.00 p.m. - lunch,
  • 1.00 - 2.00 p.m. – lecture by Prof. Christer Kiselman “Jozef Siciak, a great mathematician and a faithful friend”,
  • 2.15 - 3.15 p.m. – lecture by Prof. Wiesław Pleśniak “The Bernstein-Walsh-Siciak Theorem - a fundamental tool in multivariate polynomial approximation”.

Prof. Siciak, who passed away in 2017, was born on 5 February 1931 in the village of Lecka near Dynów. He graduated in Mathematics from the Jagiellonian University. In 1960 he obtained a PhD for his thesis Pewne zastosowania metody punktów ekstremalnych (Some Applications of the Extreme Point Method), written under the supervision of Franciszek Leja. He spent the academic year 1960/1961 at the University of Stanford. After habilitating in 1962, he became extraordinary professor in 1972 and full professor in 1980. Prof. Siciak supervised PhD theses of 18 researchers, including 8 future professors. The full list of his students and students of his students is much longer.

Józef Siciak was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala, as well as a Doctor Honoris Causa of Uppsala University (Sweden) and received numerous national awards for his extraordinary scientific achievements.

In 1980 Prof. Siciak was elected Dean of the JU Faculty of Mathematics and Physics in the first democratic elections at the University since 1968. He rejected this position, fully dedicating himself to research and teaching at the JU Institute of Mathematics.