From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/10847 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: ptj@maths.cam.ac.uk Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Marta and Bernhard Date: 04 Nov 2022 15:37:21 +0000 Message-ID: Reply-To: ptj@maths.cam.ac.uk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=ISO-8859-1 Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="29588"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" To: Categories mailing list Original-X-From: majordomo@rr.mta.ca Sat Nov 05 02:07:36 2022 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from smtp2.mta.ca ([198.164.44.75]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1or7eq-0007SD-7X for gsmc-categories@m.gmane-mx.org; Sat, 05 Nov 2022 02:07:36 +0100 Original-Received: from rr.mta.ca ([198.164.44.159]:34812) by smtp2.mta.ca with esmtp (Exim 4.80) (envelope-from ) id 1or7eP-00034d-Ci; Fri, 04 Nov 2022 22:07:09 -0300 Original-Received: from majordomo by rr.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.92.1) (envelope-from ) id 1or7dp-00037i-9E for categories-list@rr.mta.ca; Fri, 04 Nov 2022 22:06:33 -0300 X-Mailer: Prayer v1.3.5 Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.science.mathematics.categories:10847 Archived-At: We have lost two giants of the category theory community in the space of a couple of weeks. I can't fully record all the things I have gained from knowing Marta Bunge and Bernhard Banaschewski, but I feel I have to try. I first met Marta at the very first international conference I attended: Aarhus, in May 1973. I was at that stage still a PhD student, and very nervous in the presence of `giants' such as Mac Lane and Lawvere, but Marta was always open and welcoming to a `new kid on the block'. It was in no small part thanks to her (and others') help that I emerged from that meeting convinced that I had a future in category theory. Over the years Marta and I had many interactions: we didn't always agree, but we always `agreed to disagree'. And when I was struck down with Covid-19 in 2020, the messages she sent me were definitely the most heart- warming of all those I received from my fellow-category-theorists (which is saying a lot!). I can't remember when I first met Bernhard, but over the years I learned an immense amount from him -- not least the importance of never being satisfied with a sub-optimal proof, but always looking for the *right* one (as I said in the dedication of my paper in his 80th birthday Festschrift). I also greatly enjoyed his sense of humour, which chimed almost perfectly with my own. (Just one sample: on one occasion when I was visiting McMaster, and we had been discussing matters to do with prime and maximal ideals 9n his office, we went out to lunch with Evelyn Nelson. Evelyn ordered prime ribs of beef, and when they brought her a massive slab of meat, I observed `That's not just a prime rib; it's a maximal rib!'. Bernhard was convulsed with laughter.) Peter Johnstone [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]