OCTOGON MATHEMATICAL MAGAZINE Vol. 21, No.1, April 2013, pp 226-228 226 Print: ISSN 1222-5657, Online: ISSN 2248-1893 http://www.uni-miskolc.hu/∼matsefi/Octogon/

The scientist Ciprian Foias at reaching the age of 80

Traian Ianculescu 28

Conjuring up the personality of the great scientist Ciprian Foias at reaching the age of 80 represents an honorable but extremely complex attempt to get the significant aspects from the history of a life dedicated to science and desk. In the masterpiece called ,,The History of Mathematics in , the 3rd volume, the author George St. Andonie, in the introductory part of the article, dedicated to the great mathematician, says the following: ,,There are some researchers who are satisfied by only adding a theorem or a lemma or by showing a new demonstration to a classical theorem as some turners, who release serial screws of a certain dimension. Others come with itineraries towards some mathematical peaks, to the zenith. Among these, Ciprian Foias is one of the most eloquent appearances for the Romanian Mathematics. He is a terrible talent, who vibrates continuously and new with a unique force of creation, the singular one. Born is Re¸sit¸a on 20th July 1933, in a doctors family, he attended the primary school and the highschool in his town, always being the first in his class, and in 1951, he was a prize-winning pupil at the Mathematics Olympiad of middle schools.He graduated from highschool in 1951, entered without any exam at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the University from . He promoted his exam with a degree in mathematics (1955) and was named the office chief at the desk of Differential & Integral Calculus of the distinguished professor Miron Nicolescu; he was a scientific researcher at the Mathematics Institute of the Academy (1958) then he became a university lecturer (1962) at the Pedagogical Institute of three years from Bucharest. In 1961 he sustained his masters degree thesis called ,,Some applications of spectral multitudes. The Spectral Harmonious Measure at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics in Bucharest. On 1st October 1966 he was

28Received: 26.12.2012 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 01A65. Key words and phrases. History and biography. The scientist Ciprian Foias at reaching the age of 80 227 confirmed as a university professor at the department of Mathematical Analysis of the Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty from Bucharest and in 1978 university professor at the University -South. In 1980 he settled in the United States as a university professor at Indiana University from Blloomington.

In the quality of professor at the universities from Dresda , Paris , Pisa and Tel Aviv he visited with a scientific purpose numerous institutions from Romania , Hungary , Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Russia, Japan and the United States. He presented scientific essays appreciated at the International Congresses. He is a founding member of the magazine ,,Operator Theory and contributed to prestigious mathematics magazines.

The scientific activity of professor Ciprian Foias focuses mainly on the following domains: differential equation or with partial derivatives, integral equations, the theory of functions and the functional analysis with a focus on the theory of integral decomposition’s of spectral or semi-spectral families of operators in Hilbert spaces and on the theory of Hilberts spaces contractions.

He had exquisite contributions , being the author (or co-author) of over 250 scientific papers and studies of speciality. Among the mathematicians he collaborated with we can mention: Nicolescu, M., Marinescu, Gh., Bela Sz. Nagy , Lions, J. L., Gussi, G., Poenaru, V., Dinculeanu, N., Colojora, N., Professor Ciprian Foias is a honorific member of the Academy of Science in Hungary (1993) and honour member of the (1994) ; he was awarded with the prize ,,Norbert Wiener by the American Mathematics Society and with the award ,,Rothrock Faculty Teaching by the Indiana University in Blloomington.

Mister Gussi, G. , in his article entitled ,,Miron Nicolescu - in memoriam” affirmed about this great scientist the following: He encouraged the young and formed a series of very talented students, who later became mathematicians and teachers of a great value. The closest ( and the most valuable) to him was professor Ciprian Foias who himself became a very bright minded founder of school. One of his disciples is Dan Virgil Voiculescu, a university professor at the University of California, Berkeley, member of the Scientific Council Fields, which awards the distinction 228 Traian Ianculescu representing the equivalent of the Nobel prize in Mathematics.

Reaching the age of 80 years old, we address the professor-scientist Ciprian Foias the wish of health, long life and power of work for being a bright Romanian name in the world of Mathematics.

Highschool: Liceul Teoretic Zimnicea [email protected]