Dear Professor Tim Porter, I am saddened to hear about the death of Professor Ronnie Brown. Please convey my heartfelt condolences to his family! As you know, I have had the good fortune of corresponding with him for over two decades; Professor Ronnie Brown was instrumental in what must have been the first international conference to bring together category theoreticians and cognitive neuroscientists (https://conceptualmathematics.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ictn....). Professor Ronnie Brown was also kind enough in helping me understand category theory, while I was teaching Lawvere & Schanuel Conceptual Mathematics at The Salk Institute (https://conceptualmathematics.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/from-function-to-cate...). More than anything else, I admired his ability to speak truth without being biased (during one too many debates that often erupted on category theory mailing list). All the more important for me was his ability to make what seemed like "it'll take me quite a few lifetimes to understand" comprehensible. In this spirit, I'd like to recollect his long standing commitment to the popularization / outreach / usability of mathematics: Out of Line https://groupoids.org.uk/outofline/outofline.pdf (just in case ...) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p76YRSfInVpgTxf7HdTQ3rbrfq566wnR/view?usp=s... The intuitions of higher dimensional algebra for the study of structured space https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02963404 In the above, what I found particularly fascinating (not to mention that it's in the Newtonian spirit of compounding after resolution) is understanding a space beginning with subdivision followed by algebraic inverse to subdivision or (with the algebraic operation such as) composition defined under geometric condition(s): source (b) = target (a). I'd also like to note that there is a Special Issue Dedicated to Ronald Brown for his 80th Birthday: https://link.springer.com/journal/40062/volumes-and-issues/11-4 My heartfelt condolences to you Tim; it must be difficult given your [almost] lifetime collaboration. Thanking you, Yours truly, posina On Sun, Dec 8, 2024 at 12:02 AM Timothy Porter <t.porter.maths@gmail.com> wrote:
I have been asked by his son Marcus to inform his friends on the Categories mailing list that Ronnie Brown who was for many years professor at the University College of North Wales (later renamed the University of Bangor) died yesterday at his home in Deganwy.
Please share this information with others who may have known Ronnie.
Thanks,
Tim Porter.
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