Preface to Mathematical
papers in honour of Eduardo Marques de Sá
O. Azenhas, A. L. Duarte, J. F. Queiró, A.
P. Santana, editors
Departamento de Matemática - Universidade de Coimbra, 2006.
This collection
of mathematical papers is dedicated to our colleague and
friend Eduardo Marques de Sá on the occasion of his 60th
birthday.
Throughout his
professional life, Marques de Sá has fulfilled many roles, as
a researcher of high calibre, as an outstanding teacher, as
mentor of students at all levels (including six PhD students)
and in many different areas, as a successful popularizer of
Mathematics, as an active participant in Department life.
Common traits can be detected in his activities: exacting
standards, an absolute intellectual integrity, and an intense
passion for Mathematics, all of Mathematics. If a subject
attracts his attention, he will not leave it until
understanding is complete. A problem will be abandoned only
after the most thorough effort to solve it.
He has always
taken his teaching very seriously. This can be gauged by a
simple fact: there are few courses taught by Marques de Sá in
the last 30 years for which he has not carefully prepared a
set of notes for the students. For many years these were
simply handwritten, but were even clearer than if they were
typed. As he moved from course to course, many subjects were
covered, from Analysis in several variables and Complex
Analysis to Commutative Algebra and advanced Logic, with the
texts running sometimes in the hundreds of pages. With
characteristic modesty, he never thought of transforming these
notes into formal books, although they were always highly
polished and original. Some of them he may even have forgotten
by now.
A similar
detachment can be seen in his research. Of course he has
published a number of papers, currently around 50 (one of
them, written with three co-authors during a long visit to the
One set of
writings he is justifiably proud of is the comparative study
of Mathematics curricula and textbooks for basic and secondary
levels in
Marques de Sá’s
published writings do not give the full picture of his
personality and achievements. To read his notes and papers is
always an enriching experience, but to meet him personally is
to come in contact with an exceptional mind.
We would like to
thank the mathematicians who contributed with their work to
this volume. We also thank our colleague Júlio Neves for his
help with the editing process. The financial support of the
Coimbra, November 2006