Memories and Photos from Ethan Akin

Ethan Akin (Math Department, CCNY):

When I met my wife, Jean, she was Exhibits Manager for Elsevier. I was just learning topological dynamics and she got me a copy of Joe’s book on minimal flows.  I found it to be a wonderful book.  This is not surprising as Joe is one of the great names in topological dynamics.  Everyone I have met agrees with this assessment of the man and the book, although all of us are irritated by its lack of an index.
 

I don’t remember how I found Joe’s phone number, but I called him up and introduced myself. He was very quiet and polite (``Who is this guy?’’ he must have been thinking).  I asked if he was any relation to Louis Auslander and when he said No, I told him about some unpleasant encounters I had had with Lou.  I later found out that he had become a repository of such stories. Someone would ask ``Are you any relation to Lou Auslander?’’  He would say ``No’’ and they would relate their Lou Auslander stories.
 

In any case, he discovered that I was serious about dynamics and, together with Ken Berg, we began a long-distance collaboration.  During my one hour commute on the Saw Mill Parkway, I would think about math and then when I got to school I would phone Joe.

I don’t like to travel but Joe pushed me to visit him and to attend conferences. The visits allowed me to meet his lovely wife Barbara and to spend time with both of them in DC. Thanks to the conferences, I met, in addition to Ken Berg, Bob and Dave Ellis, Mahesh Nerurkar, Mike Boyle, Dan Rudolph, Ayse Sahin, Jack Feldman and Hillel Furstenberg, to list the first few names that occur to me. An especially happy meeting was with Eli Glasner.  Since then he and I, sometimes with Joe and sometimes with Benjy Weiss, have worked together a great deal.

Ken and Joe introduced me to such advanced computer skills as email and TEX. I still use the old Earthlink account that I first got at Joe’s urging.  I am especially grateful to Ken who warned me to learn LaTEX instead of TEX.  I was tempted by TEX because of the title of the book The Joy of TEX by Spivak. TEX, he told me, had been built by mathematicians while LaTEX was the product of computer scientists who knew what they were doing. My years of satisfaction with LaTEX I owe to Ken.
 

Joe and I share other interests beyond math. We enjoy talking politics, although these days the talk is somewhat gloomy.  My own views are not as radical as Joe’s, although I did manage to get arrested in Berkeley in the late sixties.

About animals, I regret that I never met Joe’s famous dachshund  (Dory) who used to accompany him to work. Long before my time.  But Jean and I and Barbara and Joe share an enthusiasm for cats.  We have had a multitude over the years. The cats who owned Joe and Barbara have been real troupers as they join the couple on their trips between DC and West Virginia.

We also share a love of books.  I haven’t seen the Hamilton catalogue in years. Perhaps Library Genesis and Amazon have driven them out of business.   Back in the day when the catalogue arrived, we would each eagerly peruse it and compare notes on good buys.

I am not the walker or runner that Joe is, but I recall a walk with him in Chicago one Saturday during a conference at Northwestern. We were going to visit Hillel Furstenberg’s in-laws with whom he was staying. He couldn’t come to the conference on a Saturday and so we decided to drop in on them.  I then discovered my own close relationship with Hillel as the couple were the parents of my thesis advisor, Marshall Cohen, whose sister is Hillel’s wife.  Thus, we are almost blood relatives.

Mention should be made of all the collaboration and encouragement that Joe has given to young mathematicians.  I was in my forties when we met and so I can’t really include myself in that group.
 

At 90 Joe is still going strong.  Just recently he sent me the draft of a paper that we hope to work on together.  At the very least I hope to get it read soon.

It has been a delight to know Joe over the years. I hope we will all be able to get together to celebrate his 100th. 

Ethan Akin shares these photographs of Joe with other mathematicians:

 Eli Glasner, Ethan Akin, Joe Auslander (Photo by Sergii Kolyada) July 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xiangdong Ye with Joe Auslander. July 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Feldman and Joe Auslander Spring 2002. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eli Glasner, Francois Blanchard, Joe Auslander. Spring 2002. ("R" Street house, dining room)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe in his "R" street house, in front of his cousin Paul Resika's landscape painting. April 2010.

 

 

Mischa Brin with Joe. April 2010

 

 

 

 Erin King with Barbara, at Joe and Barbara's "R" street house.

Alicia Miller with Joe, March 2007

 Benjy Weiss,  Mike Keane, Joe Auslander

Ken Berg's Memories

 Ken (and Becky) Berg:

Joe and I go back quite a number of years. Other than a couple of friends in Minnesota that I have known since elementary school, there is no one from my early days that I am still regularly in touch with. A few recollections:

In 1967 I was finishing my thesis and, supposedly, applying for a job. The thesis was pretty much completed, but application forms are long and boring, and "It can wait 'till Wednesday" is an old Minnesota saying. My lucky star was shining. In 1966, Maryland had hired 18 new math faculty, and in 1967 they discovered that they still needed one more. I imagine they were looking forward to going through the hiring process again about as much as I liked filling out forms. My understanding is that it went something like this. The chair mentioned to Joe that a hiring committee would have to be formed to start the process, Joe said  "Let's hire Ken Berg", the chair said "Sounds right", they offered, I accepted,  the application forms got trashed,  that was that.

An amusing side story. About a week after I accepted, I got a note from Bob Hill, who organized schedules. Later Bob and I would become friends, but this was the first I had heard of him. The note said that I was scheduled to teach Math 414 and Math 463, and what texts would I like to use? For a moment I thought of replying  that I wanted to use texts 37 and 53, but instead I called Joe to find out what these courses were actually about.

Joe and I had not yet met except by phone when all this took place. We met face to face at a conference that summer in Fort Collins.

Moving on a few years, Joe decided to start an exercise program. We would meet at the track at Byrd Stadium and jog around the track. It's fair to say that when Joe started this he really needed it. He stuck with it, and I cannot think of anyone who accomplished more. Not that either of us ran a four minute mile, but that wasn't the point. The transformation was truly impressive.

Kids: Mark and Bonnie often came with Joe. Mark was maybe 10 or 12, and ready to run. Bonnie was younger, but nobody was leaving her behind if she had anything to say about it. I enjoyed watching the kids join in. Some years later I was sharing a house with some other guys, on sabbatical for  the fall semester at Berkeley, when a now young adult Bonnie showed up. She was either picking up something or dropping off something, I do not recall the details, but she mentioned she was going to an Emmy Lou Harris concert.  Not anyone I had heard of, but I now have a couple of her albums. Kids can be useful. I learned of Carole King from my older daughter, and while even I had heard of Jerry Garcia, my younger daughter made sure I paid attention.

More recently, meaning about 26 years ago, I was seeing a woman who mentioned that Joe had been asking her a bunch of questions. "I think he was vetting me". I guess she passed the exam, Becky and I have now been married for 25 years. 

 We wish for good years and good times for Joe and Barbara.

Anima Nagar's birthday regards

Anima Nagar writes from New Delhi:

In September 2010 there was a grand celebration at
Joe’s DC home on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Those were my initial days at UMD and Joe did not know me.   Naturally I was not invited there. We were later introduced and have been actively collaborating since then. And during the end of 2010 itself I was extended a much advanced invitation - to Joe’s 90th birthday celebrations in September 2020. Since then almost every year 2011, 2012, 2014, ... I was kept reminded of this invitation. And today the scenario is quite different. I still have the invitation but there will be no party.

Man proposes, God disposes! But is God really a villain here? I am reminded of the famous quote

God made the natural numbers , all the rest is the work of man – Leopold Kronecker.

And since God knows the natural numbers so well, is aware that set theoretically all finite numbers have similar properties. I take this opportunity to invite myself to Joe’s birthday celebrations in September 2030 when he will blow out 100 candles. 

Academically, the past decade has been the most fruitful for me - thanks to the very encouraging mentorship provided by Joe. His easy availability for clearing any doubts or suggestions of the necessary resources just keeps me greedy for more. I strongly wish the next decade is more profitable in terms of this academic association.

(Image above:  Feb, 2016 at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.)