That's very sad to hear. I have vivid memories of interacting with him on some pull requests, quite a while ago. He was very patient and was delight to communicate. I still remember, how he helped me in this PR: https://github.com/sympy/sympy/pull/9291 I learnt a lot just by communicating to him on that PR. He will be missed, may his soul rest in peace.
- Amit On Monday, March 11, 2024 at 7:50:47 PM UTC ankitd...@gmail.com wrote: > May God grant peace to the departed soul. I missed the chance to learn > from him. > > > Ankit > > On Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 1:03 AM Peter Stahlecker <peter.st...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> A very graceful eulogy. >> >> Best regards, >> >> Peter Stahlecker >> >> >> On Mon 11. Mar 2024 at 20:03, Aaron Meurer <asme...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> The passing of Kalevi Suominen truly a loss for the SymPy community. >>> >>> I had the honor of meeting Kalevi face to face once on a video call >>> many years ago, but other than that, like everyone else, I primarily >>> interacted with him online. Kalevi was always known in the SymPy >>> community as the mathematics expert. As a retired professor of >>> mathematics, his knowledge greatly assisted the development of some of >>> the deep mathematical areas in SymPy, such as the polynomials and >>> group theory modules. He was always available to give advice whenever >>> I was unsure of some part of SymPy that was outside of my domain of >>> expertise. I was always impressed by the breadth of his mathematical >>> knowledge, as well as his skill as a Python programmer, a combination >>> which can be rare to see. >>> >>> Yet despite being easily the most mathematically adept member of the >>> community, he never lorded it over us, but always approached every >>> interaction with kindness and humility. He considered himself to be an >>> equal and as both a teacher and a learner. He can be a model for the >>> sort of contributor and community member we should all strive to be, >>> and our project was truly lucky to have him. >>> >>> I found some of the papers and books he wrote on Google Scholar >>> >>> https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C32&q=Kalevi+Suominen&oq= >>> and MathSciNet (but this requires a subscription to view, which I do >>> not have) https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet/MRAuthorID/209375. He >>> never mentioned this work, and it seems like most of it deals with >>> technical mathematical areas which are not directly relevant to SymPy. >>> >>> I'll close on the following paragraphs from Kalevi himself, which I >>> found in an old private email from 2018, on why he contributed to >>> SymPy: >>> >>> > Being retired, I consider myself lucky as I can work with open code >>> > on my own time with no pressure. It seems that many pensioners find >>> > themselves a hobby. This is what suits me. >>> > >>> > I originally came across SymPy when searching for a mathematical >>> > library for experimenting with some algorithms. It was (almost) >>> > "love at first sight". It does not matter that the language, Python, >>> > is not the most efficient one. It is easy to work with, and very much >>> > readable. Readability is important to me as it helps in finding >>> > errors. (That is what I had been doing for a great part of my >>> > professional life.) It was also of importance to me that functions >>> > would look familiar, sin(x), not Sin[x]. Instead of simply using >>> > SymPy I finally found myself wanting to improve the library, >>> > but that is another story. >>> >>> Aaron Meurer >>> >>> >>> On Sun, Mar 10, 2024 at 10:31 AM Oscar Benjamin >>> <oscar.j....@gmail.com> wrote: >>> > >>> > Hi all SymPy community, >>> > >>> > It is with great sadness that I bring the news that Kalevi Suominen >>> > (@jksuom on GitHub) passed away on the 4th of March. Kalevi's son >>> > Risto passed on this news to me and some others by email yesterday. >>> > >>> > I never met Kalevi in person but we had many conversations online over >>> > many years. Kalevi was an outstanding SymPy contributor and was >>> > involved with the project long before me and so there are others here >>> > who have known him much longer than I have. Kalevi guided many SymPy >>> > contributors and supervised many GSOC students over many years. >>> > Looking in the git history his earliest commit was from almost exactly >>> > 10 years ago. >>> > >>> > Personally I learnt a huge amount from Kalevi and I am very grateful >>> > for the time he took to teach me and others and to guide the project >>> > generally. Kalevi's expertise in many areas of Mathematics and across >>> > the full depth of many parts of the SymPy codebase was unmatched >>> > within the community. >>> > >>> > Interacting through GitHub I guess that many of us did not realise >>> > that Kalevi's health was in decline. He continued to be involved >>> > including most recently reviewing a pull request just 6 weeks ago. A >>> > few weeks ago he sent me some files with what he was most recently >>> > working on but was no longer able to finish. I will try to complete >>> > that work and submit it as Kalevi's final pull request. >>> > >>> > Kalevi's passing is a huge loss to SymPy but I don't want to dwell on >>> > that. Instead I invite those of us who have known Kalevi to share >>> > their thoughts and memories here. >>> > >>> > Oscar >>> > >>> > -- >>> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "sympy" group. >>> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to sympy+un...@googlegroups.com. >>> > To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CAHVvXxTRWVQp_N_0%3DNnf-yBJwSu373sw-NB7UKuZCks2HTHGaA%40mail.gmail.com >>> . >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "sympy" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to sympy+un...@googlegroups.com. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CAKgW%3D6%2Bn9hbbk2OsPqUfoJUUmrSbB1Znrx_42wgexghtYXMF6w%40mail.gmail.com >>> . >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "sympy" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to sympy+un...@googlegroups.com. >> > To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CABKqA0amdL6op4jTTPwsSAtJEzJ68HxmS%3DXvO3A-Dce5m%3Dv95A%40mail.gmail.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CABKqA0amdL6op4jTTPwsSAtJEzJ68HxmS%3DXvO3A-Dce5m%3Dv95A%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sympy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sympy+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/474378cc-8518-4325-9eaf-1c8a5898d116n%40googlegroups.com.
