Florin Nicolae Diacu

94 Responses

1. Dear Mariana,

   I wanted to let you know how desperately sad I was to hear of Florin’s passing. He was an amazing man and I felt a close bond with him despite only knowing him a short while. Yvonne and I send you our thoughts and prayers.

   With much thought for you and your family,

   Steve and Yvonne Pointing

2. Dear Marina,

   It is hard for me to believe how quickly this all happened. Just a few months ago, Florin was walking with us (a group of Yale-NUS faculty and spouses) on Arab Street, full of curiosity about Singapore. Although he was at Yale-NUS only a short time, he earned the affection and respect of his colleagues, the students and tennis team players. We will miss him.

   With sadness in my heart for your loss. Cynthia

3. I knew Florin since 26 years ago when we agree in the international Conference Equadiff 91, held in Barcelona, Spain during 1991. In that conference we present the results of our respective Ph. D. thesis. I meet him three times in the next three years, after that, we decide to collaborate since our interests in math were so similar. Since then we have worked together in many projects and our friendship increased more and more every day. We have collaborated as co- authors in several papers, as well in the organization of international conferences, interchange of students and multiple research visits both in Canada and Mexico. Our research is close, and the discussions with him, always have been fruitful of new ideas. Along all these years I could discover in Florin a brilliant person, he was imaginative, intuitive, with clear ideas, spotting the important focus points. I have the fortune to participate with him in the development of new ideas in celestial mechanics and Hamiltonian dynamical systems. Working with him was also funny and pleasant, he was energetic, optimistic, with a contagious enthusiasm, in few words he was an outstanding mathematician.

   As you can see in his CV, Florin was also a very good teacher, is amazing the long list of undergraduate and graduate students that he had. He knew how to stimulate to his students to go deeper in any new project, and any new idea that the students want to work.
   Last but not least, I have to mention that he was also an extraordinary writer, one of his books “Celestial encounters” has been translated to several languages, it has become a bestseller and a required lecture for all students interested in celestial mechanics. I also love his books “The lost millenium” and “Megadisas- ters”. I have all his books with a nice dedicatory to me, they form worth part of my library.

   Last February 1st, I received an e-mail from Florin, he still was in Singapore, it was a deepest emotional good bye letter, where he told me the bad news about his illness. He finished that letter with a simple: I must take a nap now, Cheers Ernesto!

   Good bye my brother, I will miss so much.

   Ernesto Pérez Chavela

4. Dear Marina

   I am very sad with the notices about Florin’s passing away. I always remember him in his lively way of dealing with people. In the several occasions that I met him I was impressed with his friendly attitudes.

   I am deeply sorry for his early departure.

   Hildeberto

5. Mariana,
   So sorry to hear of Florin’s passing. I met him when you had a group of us from St.Ann’s to your home for Christmas lunch. He was very charming. Thinking of you at this sad time.

6. Draga Marina si Răzvan

   Am aflat abia ieri seara despre moartea lui Florin, stire care ne-a șocat teribil. Nu ne venea sa credem știind cât de activ era Florin și ce viata cumpătată a dus. Va transmitem condoleanţe si suntem cu voi in timpurile astea dureroase. O sa fim la înmormântarea lui alaturi de voi. Îi urăm sa se odihneasca in pace!

   Familia Cernat

7. Mariana – our deepest condolences on your your loss. Florin was always so cheerful and kind on and off the tennis court. He will be dearly missed at the Saanich Tennis Club. RIP Florin.

8. Dear Mariana,

   I am truly sorry to hear of the loss of Florin. My condolences to you and your family. I am grateful and happy to have known Florin. He is such a kind, enthusiastic, and encouraging person.

   I only met him in person once at a conference in December 2016. I can’t imagine that it was the first and also the last time I see him in person. He gave very nice and inspiring comments for my talk as a senior mathematician to a young fellow. We had a very happy meet. I still remember Florin’s interest in learning Chinese characters. He had these super smart and funny understandings of different characters.

   I really appreciated it when he promised to support my research at UVIC. I came to UVIC last August when he had left for Singapore. We had discussions through emails and Skype. He leads me to the field of curved N-body problem (as Simon Zhu mentioned), I love this topic very much, and will continue these topics in the spirit of Florin. His kind face remains forever in my image. Hope you and your family find peace and comfort.

   Sincerely,
   Yanxia

9. Draga Marina,

   Iti adresez condoleantele mele si regret enorm ca sotul tau nu mai e printre noi! Florin a fost un mare matematician si am si eu idee de matematica ca fosta pasiune, dar eu l-am indragit mai ales pentru formidabila lui blindete, bunatate si simplitate. Mi-au ramas in minte o gramada de vorbe pe care speram sa i le pot adresa, simt un gol in piept. Mereu mi-a placut de voi ca si cuplu si pot doar sa imi imaginez ce e in sufletul tau indurerat. Te imbratisez ca pe o sora!

10. Dear Ms Diacu,

    I am shocked and sad with the passing of Dr Florin. Please accept my sincerest condolences. Florin was my supervisor of my phd program, in 2013-2017, at Uvic. I will never forget him, a gracious, reliable, and inspiring person. He played such an important role in my life. If not him, I might not doing the career as a mathematician, which I enjoy most. I owe a lot to him, personally and scientifically. I can not believe this, with Yanxia (a postdoc at Uvic), we were writing a paper together, and the manuscript was only finished in January 2018. Please let me know if there is anything I can help you.

    Shuqiang (Simon, my English name given by Florin) Zhu
    Erstwhile student of Florin D

    Below are some thoughts that I would like to share about Florin.

    Florin was a great mentor. He is always encouraging me, and does not set bounds for my research. He always says, research is an adventure, which maybe rewarding or not, but you have to first go to the bush. When I had any problem, I know that he would like to discuss if I turn to him. I miss the talks we have had in his office every week during the past few years. I remember his support when I lost my father in 2014. I was led by him into the area of celestial mechanics in the 3-sphere and 3-hyperbolic sphere.

    Florin is an outstanding mathematician. Florin once said, mathematics is not, as many people think, just about proving a famous conjecture, but it is first of all about finding new viable paths that keep our curiosity alive. His main scientific accomplishments in recent years are his work in celestial mechanics in 3-sphere and 3-hyperbolic sphere, or, the curved N-body problem, as Florin called it. Though there were research in this field, Florin brings new life to it. It is very brilliant that Florin use the cartesian coordinates to write the differential equations. This approach allows to bring the linear algebra techniques into the study of the equations of motions, which is especially convenient for the study of relative equilibria. Thus, it leads to the study of central configurations of the curved N-body problem, which would surely be important for the study of the problem.