Caslav V. Stanojević

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Časlav V. Stanojević (Serbian Cyrillic: Часлав В. Станојевић; Belgrade, Serbia, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, now Serbia, 23 June 1928 - Rolla, Missouri, United States, 10 November 2008) was a world-renowned Serbian-American mathematician.,

Biography

Časlav V. Stanojević earned his B.S. degree (Diploma) in 1952 and Ph.D. in 1955 both in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Belgrade. It is no surprise to find out that this great mathematician completed his Ph.D. studies under the supervision of world-famous mathematicians René Maurice Fréchet and D. Marković in just three years. Even before he completed his Ph.D., he had worked as a supervisor in the Center for Technical and Scientific Documentation and as a lecturer in the State Institute for Statistics in Belgrade. Between 1953 and 1961, he taughtat the University of Belgrade with the ranks of Assistant Professor and Associate Professor. He then joined the mathematics faculty of University of Detroit in 1962 as an Associate Professor, and became full professor in 1966. In the fall of 1968, he started teaching at University of Missouri-Rolla, UMR (now Missouri University of Science and Technology, MUST)

Časlav V. Stanojević remained a member of MUST Mathematics Department until his retirementin 1998. Even after his retirement, he continued supervising his last two doctoral students till August 2002. He was not only a great mathematician, researcher, accomplished astrologer, but also a great teacher, mentor, and advisor to all of his students. He had eight Ph.D. students at MUST, namely John Garrett (1976), and William Bray (1981). He taught a wide range of courses: Mathematical Analysis, Abstract Algebra, Calculus, Advanced calculus, Theory of Complex Functions, Measure Theory, Topology, Set Theory, Numerical Analysis, Orthogonal polynomials, Mathematical Statistics, Differential equation, and Linear Algebra. He also gave a numberof special seminars such as Fourier Series, Limit theorems in the Theory and Probability, Foundations, Characterization of Inner Product Spaces, and [oundations of General Quantum Theories. He published several scientific books as well as a novel "The Time-Catcher" in 1974. The book was inspired by Dr. Stanojević’s personal knowledge of people and events in World War II and benefited from years of research. He published scientific book Theory and Applications of Fourier Analysis with C. Rees and S. Shan. Also, he published as editor:

• 1. Fourier Analysis: Analytic and Geometric Aspects (with William F. Bray and Pavle S. Milojević),
• 2. Analysis of Divergence: Control and Management of Divergent Processes (with William Bray),
• 3. Proceedings of the International Workshop in Analysis and Its Applications the Fourth Annual Meeting (with O. Hadzig),
• 4. Proceedings of the International Workshop in Analysis and Its Appli-cations the Fifth Annual Meeting: Analysis and Foundations (with M. Insal, A.R. Blass and M. R. Žižović),
• 5. On L Convergence of Certain Cosine (with John W. Garrett)
• 6, Theory and Application of Fourier Analysis (with Charles S. Rees and S. M. Shah)

Stanojević was one of the main organizers of International Workshop in Analysis and Its Applications (IWAA). Four preceding meetings of IWAA had beenheld in Kupari, Yugoslavia. At the resort complex in Kupari, but due to unforeseen circumstances, the fifth meeting was postponded. In the time since the original scheduled fifth meeting, the sixth meetingof the IWAA was held at the University of Maine, Orono, 15-21 JUne 1992, with Contemporary Aspects in Fourier Analysis. The fifth meeting was reorganized in conjunction with Professor Matt Insall, and was held at the University of Missouri at Rolla, 17-21 May 1995.Proceeding of the postponded fifth IWAA was printed as special (pilot) volume (1997) of the journal Mathematica Moravica. Also, we note that proceedings of the second and third meetings of the IWAA had been published by the Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the University of Novi Sad. Papers presented at the first meeting appeared in such journal as Proceeding of the AMS, Bulletin of the AMS, Mathematische Annalen, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, . . .Finally, at meetings of the IWAA participated E. Nelson, B. Baishanski, W. O. Bray, M. Tasković]], Pavle S. Milojević, A. S. Kechris, G. Takeuti, B.Rhoades, R. Hering, P. Matet, M. Ozawa, N. Vakil, P. Loeb, J. Lakey, C.Impens, W. Veldman, T. Hicks, Z. Sasvari, D. Spalt, M. Snell, R. Askey, O.V. Besov, N.H. Bingham, V.P. Ilyin, B.S. Kasin, W. A. Kirk, B. Mielnik, B. Mitjagin, S.M. Nilkovski, W. Rudin, S. Saitoh, S.A. Telyakovski, V.M.Tikhomirov, J. M. Ash, T. Ostrogorski, E. Kreysig.... He published about fifty scientific research papers (records from Math-SciNet), the first one was “Solution of the functional equation proposed byProfessor Jovan Karamata” (in Serbian) in 1951, although the MathSciNetshows 1952 as the earliest indexed publication year, and the latest one was in 2003 with Jonathan Hatch. Here are some of the areas in which he has published in his lifetime: Analysis,Approximations and Expansions, Associative Rings and Algebras, Difference and Functional Equations, Fourier Analysis, Functional Analysis, Functions of A Complex Variable, General Topology, Real Functions, Summability, Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes, Information and Communication, Circuits. He has made collaborations with more than twenty colleagues and received thirty one citations from his research papers according to the MathSciNet. His graduate students remember his long lectures. Especially if the class met late afternoon and he knew that no student would have another class after his, he would keep students one and half or even two hours sometimes. Dr. Leon Hall, chairman of Mathematics Department at MUST, included the following short and interesting anectodes about this incident in the department’s Newsletter in December 1997:

"In 1970-71 I was in Časlav’s Real Variables class. In the fall, the class met at 4:30, and since it was clear that none ofus had a class afterwards, Časlav didn’t worry much aboutkeeping us past 5:20. In fact, we soon found that getting outof class at 6:00 was more the norm than exception. Except forone day. That day, we suddenly found class dismissed at 5:45. We later discovered that Časlav and Vera got married soon after class on that day, and that Vera had been waiting in Časlav’s office for class to end, so he only kept us 25 minutes extra instead of 45.He then continues how some of the graduate students, including himself, asked the chairman of that time, Dr. Glen Haddock, if the second semester class could be scheduled at 2:30. They then made sure that at least one of the students had another class at 3:30. Real Variables class was dismissed on time in the spring. He hoped that Časlav didn’t mind. He could look at it as a wedding present from the class. They made sure he had some extra time for Vera. Stanojević’s students would probably remember his interesting exams. He liked asking questions in the form of boxes. As students, we would need to fill in the boxes whether it is a step by step proof or a computational problem. This was a fun way to answer math questions in an exam. He would also encourage us, who plan to become mathematics professors, to use the same idea in our classes to save time in grading. When he asked a question in class, he would call one of the students’ names and expect to get an answer from him/her. After waiting a minute or two, if that student can’t answer it, he would move on to the next student. Fortunately, one of the students would answer the question. If not, this process would continue even for the second round. The first student who couldn’t answer the question would find himself having to answer the same question. Only after the second round, if no one got the answer, Prof. Stanojević would answer the question. In the meantime, some of us would get preached about how much we don’t know etc. . . .His knowledge on almost anything would amaze his students. Most importantly how careful he was on choosing the kind of food he ate and special places he got them. He was extremely careful with his health. Once a month or two he would drive, and sometimes he would go with his graduate students, from Rolla to St. Louis, Missouri, to stop by several international food stores to pick the best meat, cheese, canned shark fin soup, wine, etc. ..During that two to three hours round-trip time, math discussions would lead to a new theorem or the proof of a well-known result. He was also known for keeping a log of the mileage he walked in the last years of his life. As long as the weather permitted, he walked about three miles every evening on campus. His mathematical reputation was truly international," according to Dr. L. Hall.

References

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