Thursday, October 4, 2007

Laci lovasz

The best way to continue something after a long gap is to assume that the gap never happened. This way the continuous function will remain continuous.

This post is about László Lovász .
Today i got an opportunity to attend his lecture during the first anniversary celebration of ARC (Algorithms and Randomness Center).
Laci is regarded as one of the best combinatoritian of today's generation. My only idea was to go there and sit there and see how he lasi lovasz in perosn. Clearly, i didnt understood an iota of his lecture. I think i was prepared for this fact. He was not going to give any social lecture, this was a technical one and i was expected to be blank. But i just wanted to see him.
Somehow i compared myself to the hoarde of frenzy fans chasing cricketers , celeberities and they know that they have no buisness there. Although my approach didnt had any frenzy but still there is some (although very small) similarity between the analogies. Halfway through the lecture, i realized that i may not be the only one, there are others also who dont understand a bit but are just sitting there.

Had there been a nobel prize for combinatorics, he would have received one. He has received Godel prize, knuth prize, and what not. So this post is just to document that i have met a person who was the leader in his field. Had it been a more tangible field like movies, arts, there would have been millions to see him but today only 200 people were more than enough to witness his presence.

This event also marks my first one to see a person in technical who is the best. Well i am ignoring the gatech faculty here who is also too good but :) . I am also ignoring my meeting with bill gates. there might be many more ini future but lets see.