NewsFrom: Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro gpsDate: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 14:19:10 -0500 (EST) Subject: Remembering Jan Zytkow Here are remembrances of Jan Zytkow from two people who knew him well -- Arun Sanjeev, his long-time student, and Willi Kloesgen - his close colleague and co-worker. Thanks to all others that sent their comments -- I will pass them to Jan's family. Gregory -- From: Arun Sanjeev SanjeevA@aurorabio.com Subject: Letter in Memory of Jan Zytkow Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 10:24:57 -0800 I first met Jan ten years ago as a poor graduate student eager to do everything but not knowing what to do. Jan took me in and had ever since kept me under his wings. He was truly an inspiring teacher, and my mentor. He taught me many morals, the meanings of integrity, and what it takes to work hard. He always said, "one must do a good job and let the work speak for itself". Jan travelled extensively to give lectures, organize meetings, attend conferences, and present papers. We have had collaborative work presented at some of those meetings, and when both of us travelled we always roomed together. Over the years, times like those brought us closer and very quickly Jan made the transition from my teacher, to my colleague, to my close friend. Numerous times I have seen and heard him say how much his wife Malgosia meant to him even in small things and actions, and his love for his children was clear when he spoke proudly of them. Jan showed his affections in many ways. For example, once he personally took the time and effort to meet my mother. I have always yearned to express my thanks and gratitude to Jan for all that he has been to me. Yet he never gave me that opportunity. Now, I have only one thing to say and it breaks my heart to know that he is not in our presence to listen: Jan has truly made a difference in my life. He would have continued to do the same in the lives of many others as well. Goodbye Jan, we will miss you very dearly. Arun P. Sanjeev former student, colleague, and a personal friend. PS. these words were said as an eulogy for Jan M. Zytkow at the services held for him on January 20, 2001 at Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. -- From: Willi Kloesgen kloesgen@gmd.de Subject: In memoriam Prof. Jan Zytkow Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 15:36:34 +0100 September 9, 1944 - January 16, 2001 On January 16th at 11:35am Jan Zytkow died in the early age of 56 in Charlotte, North Carolina. He had an open heart surgery one week ago because of cancer obstructing blood flow. A few days after surgery he passed away due to cancer. His disease appeared completely inconceivable to his friends, since he never mentioned his disease and until recently was very active and seemed to look fine. But perhaps his possession of elaborating his creative ideas prevented him from paying attention to early somatic warning signals. Jan Zytkow obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Warsaw in Physics (1967), Philosophy (1970), and Philosophy of Science (1972). He was Professor (Philosophy, Psychology, Computer Science) at the universities of Warsaw (until 1982), Carnegie-Mellon (until 1984), Wichita (until 1997), and Charlotte (since 1997). His name became well known in the scientific community by his numerous publications. Already in the 80s he has been active in research on automation of scientific discovery (ASD). His research was motivated by the intellectual curiosity about discovery and by the quest for automating intelligence. At Carnegie Mellon, where his early work was influenced by the cooperation with Herbert Simon and Pat Langley, he belonged to the pioneeers of Scientific Discovery who developed the first ASD systems like BACON and FAHRENHEIT. In the early 90s he belonged to those important contributors to the first KDD meetings who had established ASD, having performed at that time already more than a decade of intensive research on automation of discovery prior to the origination of KDD. He was obsessed by the idea of automating discovery and he initially demonstrated that different isolated steps of discovery can be done by computer systems. After developing a number of methods that provided such existential proofs, his next natural task was to integrate many discovery capabilities in one system. He then focussed the major part of his research work on the more practical discoveries of KDD that are applied to individual domains. His 49er system demonstrated, that KDD can learn from the experience of ASD, primarily from discovery systems which are more automated than most KDD systems, and can discover forms of knowledge not yet much considered in KDD. A large number of valuable scientific publications flew out of his dilligent brains. Unfortunately the deceased could not enjoy any more the satisfaction to see published his recent Handbook on Knowledge Discovery and Datamining, since editing of the handbook was finished only shortly before his death and will appear soon. As a member of several scientific societies (such as SIGKDD) he devoted all his strength to advance the organization of the discovery field. He has met his responsibilities of coediting journals and conference series with great emphasis. As editorial board member, he belonged to the most conscientious reviewers of many articles for several journals. Jan Zytkow had a large pleasure in teaching and discussing his knowledge. Jan has always been full of plans and ideas. Although having enjoyed already for a long time his residence in the United States, where he was very enthusiastic about the free and independent philosophy of life, he kept affectionate patriotic ties to his Polish homeland. As a member of the Polish Academy of Science and the founder of the European Conference on Principles of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery (which he created in 1997 and very successfully chaired until last year), he propagated the KDD fundamentals in Europe. He always conserved his independent judgement not readily following fashionable trends. His friends and collaborators will always remember his optimistic way of life, his vitality and joy of living. They will miss his ardour and integrity. An excellent personage and internationally recommended expert has passed away. His live finished much too early, but has resulted in rich fruits. We will gratefully remember him. Our condolences are addressed to his wife and his four children. Willi Kloesgen |
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