[QUOTE=R.D. Silverman;536041]I find it interesting that in a [i]forum dedicated to a branch of mathematics[/i] there is much more discussion about the death of a basketball player than there was about several well known mathematicians.[/QUOTE]
Especially one with a concurrent obituary:

[url=http://maddmaths.simai.eu/news-2/morto-il-grande-matematico-louis-nirenberg/]Morto il grande matematico Louis Nirenberg[/url]
[quote]Il matematico canadese Louis Nirenberg si è spento, all’età di 94 anni.
<snip>
Numerosi i riconoscimenti ricevuti, tra cui il Bôcher Memorial Prize (1959), il Jeffery-Williams Prize (1987), lo Steele Prize (1994 e 2014), la National Medal of Science (1995), il Crafoord Prize (1982, condiviso con Vladimir Arnold) la Chern Medal (2010) e, nel 2015, il premio Abel, condiviso con John Nash. Era membro della American Mathematical Society.[/quote]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;536048]Especially one with a concurrent obituary:

[url=http://maddmaths.simai.eu/news-2/morto-il-grande-matematico-louis-nirenberg/]Morto il grande matematico Louis Nirenberg[/url][/QUOTE]

Indeed. Even his own web page at NYU ([url]https://www.math.nyu.edu/faculty/nirenl/[/url]) has
not yet reported it....

@above - One sign of major contributions to functional analysis is if one has an inequality named after oneself ... in this case allow me to present the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gagliardo%E2%80%93Nirenberg%E2%80%93Sobolev_inequality]Sobolev-Nirenberg-Gagliardo inequality[/url] (pick your preferred permutation of the last names), which featured muchly in an edition of the Advanced Topics in PDEs graduate course I took back in the day at UMichigan, that particular semester was taught by Michael Weinstein, whose special topic was nonlinear waves.

Even the best-known contemporary mathematicians are not likely to be as well-known as a prominent sports figure. And the news of their passing is unlikely to be as widely publicized.

Also, there is a difference between dying an untimely, violent death at a fairly young age, and dying of natural causes in old age, after one's active career is over.

But last year did indeed see some giants pass from the scene. Atiyah. Shimura. Tate. And late 2018 saw the passing of Swinnerton-Dyer.

I can only think of one famous mathematician offhand who also excelled in sports:

Niels Bohr's younger brother Harald was both a fine mathematician and an excellent football (soccer) player. He was on the Danish team in the 1908 Olympics, which won the Silver Medal.

In mathematics, he originated the theory of "almost-periodic functions," and his name is immortalized in the Bohr-Landau Theorem.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;536065]Even the best-known contemporary mathematicians are not likely to be as well-known as a prominent sports figure. And the news of their passing is unlikely to be as widely publicized.

.[/QUOTE]

In general, Absolutely!! Which is why I was careful to point out that this forum is
dedicated to mathematics. Especially number theory.

[QUOTE=pinhodecarlos;536012]Kobe Bryant

[URL]https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/01/26/kobe-bryant-dies-in-california-helicopter-crash/[/URL][/QUOTE]


That happened ~1 day after he was overtaken by LeBron James in the NBA all time scorer stats.



[URL]https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202001250PHI.html[/URL]

[URL]https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/pts_career.html[/URL]

[QUOTE=R.D. Silverman;536067]In general, Absolutely!! Which is why I was careful to point out that this forum is dedicated to mathematics. Especially number theory.[/QUOTE]I don't think you can even plausibly make that "dedicated to mathematics" claim about the Lounge, let alone the RIP thread.

Still, I agree, it is perhaps a bit hard to understand why the passing of great mathematicians went nearly unremarked by a community as involved in mathematics as the denizens of this Forum. Perhaps reports just didn't get to web sites most of us usually frequent. And I for one very seldom check just to see whether any mathematicians have recently died.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;536073]And I for one very seldom check just to see whether any mathematicians have recently died.[/QUOTE]

So morbid...lol

On Sunday I saw someone (that I know fairly well) that personally knew several people on that helicopter. The person that I know has interacted with KB's daughter and seen KB doing normal dad things. Also they had another friend and their mother on that flight. This person that I know lost a parent and a close cousin in the last year or so. While it is not likely that they could have been on that flight, it is not out of the realm of possibility.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;536073]I don't think you can even plausibly make that "dedicated to mathematics" claim about the Lounge, let alone the RIP thread.

Still, I agree, it is perhaps a bit hard to understand why the passing of great mathematicians went nearly unremarked by a community as involved in mathematics as the denizens of this Forum. Perhaps reports just didn't get to web sites most of us usually frequent. And I for one very seldom check just to see whether any mathematicians have recently died.[/QUOTE]


I don't check at all. But I do get emails from colleagues.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;536065]And the news of their passing is unlikely to be as widely publicized.[/QUOTE]

I've noticed this too. For example, there was no coverage in mainstream media when John Selfridge passed away in 2010. The only "news" sources I found that mentioned his death were a snippet in a [url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504165309/https://math.illinois.edu/mathtimes/mathtimes_fall10_web.pdf]local university newsletter[/url], the local county newspaper and a [url=http://math-fail.com/2010/11/rip-mathematician-john-selfridge.html]tongue-in-cheek math website[/url].

And when Hans Riesel passed away, there was no mention at all. Only the American Mathematical Society posted [url=http://ams.org/news?news_id=2594]a short blurb[/url] about it on their website a few months later.