The graduate advisor at Queens College of the City University Of New York, Nick Metas, was and continues to be my greatest influence.
I first had a conversation on the phone with Nick over 15 years ago when I was a young chemistry major taking calculus and just becoming interested in mathematics. We spoke for over 3 hours and we were friends from that moment on.
It was Nick who indocrinated me into the ways of true rigor through his courses and countless conversations,and the equal cardinality of the stories he's told. Nick is a true scholar and my enormous knowledge of the textbook literature and research papers from the 1960's onward,I learned from Nick.My learned capacity for self-learning got me through the lean years at CUNY during my illnesses,when there wasn't much of a mathematics department there.
In relation to the reference to Gian-Can Rota above,I am Rota's mathematical grandson through Nick. Nick loved Rota and his eyes light up when he speaks of his dissertation advisor and friend from his student days at MIT. I hope someday there's someone famous I can feel that way about. But no one's influenced me more then Nick.
Nick's has been my friend and advisor for all things mathematical and he celebrated his 74th birthday yesterday quietly in his usual office hour,with dozens of students asking him for advice or just listening to his wonderful stories and jokes. Regardless of what happens,it will be Nick who's influence on me as a mathematician, student and mentor who's shaped me the most.
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