Vladimir Zakalyukin
At the weekend I heard that Vladimir Zakalyukin had died suddenly in Moscow on 30 December. He was well-known amongst the Singularity Theory community and was a student of Arnold. An expert on symplectic geometry, he was one of the first, if not the first, to classify Lagrangian and Legendrian singularities in depth. He also published work in various areas such as motion planning and symmetry sets. He was research active to the end with a PhD student just finishing a few months ago and was to be an organizer for the Bill Bruce and Terry Wall conference in June.
I first met him when he was visiting Warwick University in the early nineties just after the fall of communism. I think he was the first Russian I ever met. More recently I’d often see him as he had an unusual academic position in that he was able to spend spend six months of the year in Liverpool and six in Moscow.
Aside from his mathematics I will remember him for his sense of humour (always difficult to communicate in a second language). At one conference dinner he related to us an hilarious story of how he went hunting and ended up being the hunted. He’ll be missed by many.
[The above photo was taken by Vera Timofeeva. I attempted to contact her for permission to use it but was unable to find any contact details. If anyone knows them, can they let me know? Thanks. UPDATE: Thanks to Joel Haddley for giving me the details. FURTHER UPDATE: Vera has informed me that Ugo Boscain took the picture. My thanks to him for allowing me to use it.]
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Thank you very much for this article which is considered as respecting stand up for this great man
I am deeply saddened by the loss of Vladimir which we all share. I am assured that we will be comforted by our memories and our love which will be alive for ever.
Fawaz Alharbi
One of Vladimir’s students
Thanks for your teaching, you are an inspirational mentor. I will miss you!
I can’t believe this sad news when I firstly heard about it – Prof. Zakalyukin has even replied my Merry-Xmas email on 27 Dec. I’m a student in the Uni of Liverpool, and Vladimir is my personal tutor. I’ll never forget him being responsible and warm-hearted, as well as his opinion on Puting.
A very bright gentleman – gonna remember him lifetime long.
A kind and generous man .I can still see now teaching in the Proudman lecture theatre at Liverpool with a broken leg in plaster clouds of chalk dust of different colours being kicked up into the air .It was an honour to attend his classes.
Thanks for your teaching, your methods inflences me in many ways and I will miss you!
Dear Vladimir,
You are my true mentor and inspiring colleague. I will never forget the times when we worked together on motion planning and symmetry sets. I love your Volka and we had pizza with it. You changed my attitude. I love your jokes and, of course, your laughter. Farewell, my friend, I will never ever forget you.
Max
Vladimir was a great lecturer and inspired teacher who made a positive impact on my life. On top of that he was very funny guy.
Thank you Vladimir.