Celebrating Joe Auslander's 90th: 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.