News

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