Osmo Pekonen (2 April 1960 – 12 October 2022) was a Finnish mathematician, historian of science, and author. He was a

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

of mathematics at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

and at the

University of Jyväskylä The University of Jyväskylä ( fi, Jyväskylän yliopisto) is a research university in Jyväskylä, Finland. It has its origins in the first Finnish-speaking Teacher Training College (the so-called Teacher Seminary), founded in 1863. Ar ...

, a docent of history of science at the

University of Oulu The University of Oulu ( fi, Oulun yliopisto) is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 13,000 students and 2,900 staff. 21 International Master's P ...

, and a docent of history of civilization at the

University of Lapland The University of Lapland is located in the city of Rovaniemi, Finland. It was founded in 1979. While UiT The Arctic University of Norway is the northernmost university in the world, the University of Lapland is the most northern university in t ...

. He was the Book Reviews section editor of

The Mathematical Intelligencer ''The Mathematical Intelligencer'' is a mathematical journal published by Springer Verlag that aims at a conversational and scholarly tone, rather than the technical and specialist tone more common among academic journals. Volumes are released qu ...

Personal life and death

Pekonen died suddenly in his sleep on 12 October 2022, at the age of 62, in

Uzès Uzès (; ) is a commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. In 2017, it had a population of 8,454. Uzès lies about north-northeast of Nîmes, west of Avignon and south-east of Alès. History Originally ''Uc ...

, France during a bicycle tour.

Honours and distinctions

Osmo Pekonen was a corresponding member of four French academies; these are: Académie des sciences, arts et belles-lettres de Caen (founded in 1652), Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Besançon et de Franche-Comté (founded in 1752), Académie d'Orléans (founded in 1809) and Académie européenne des sciences, des arts et des lettres (founded in 1979). In 2012, he was awarded the Prix Chaix d'Est-Ange of the

Académie des sciences morales et politiques An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

in the field of history.

Bibliography

Doctoral theses

* ''Contributions to and a survey on moduli spaces of differential geometric structures with applications in physics'', PhD thesis, University of Jyväskylä, 1988 * ''La rencontre des religions autour du voyage de l'abbé Réginald Outhier en Suède en 1736-1737'', D.Soc.Sci thesis, Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press, 2010

Monographies and edited volumes

* ''Topological and Geometrical Methods in Field Theory'', Osmo Pekonen & Jouko Mickelsson (eds.), Singapore: World Scientific, 1992 * ''Symbolien metsässä: Matemaattisia esseitä'', Osmo Pekonen (ed.), Helsinki: Art House, 1992 * ''Ranskan tiede: Kuuluisia kouluja ja instituutioita'', Helsinki: Art House, 1995 * ''Marian maa. Lasse Heikkilän elämä 1925–1961'', Helsinki: SKS, 2002 * Osmo Pekonen & Lea Pulkkinen: ''Sosiaalinen pääoma ja tieto- ja viestintätekniikan kehitys'', Helsinki: The Parliament of Finland, Committee for the Future, 2002 * ''Suomalaisen modernin lyriikan synty. Juhlakirja 75-vuotiaalle Lassi Nummelle'', Osmo Pekonen (ed.), Kuopio: Snellman-instituutti, 2005 * ''Porrassalmi. Etelä-Savon kulttuurin vuosikirja'' (ten volumes, I-X), Jorma Julkunen, Jutta Julkunen & Osmo Pekonen et alia (eds.) Mikkeli: Savon Sotilasperinneyhdistys Porrassalmi ry, 2008-2017 * ''Lapin tuhat tarinaa. Anto Leikolan juhlakirja'',Osmo Pekonen & Johan Stén (eds.), Ranua: Mäntykustannus, 2012 * ''Salaperäinen Venus'', Ranua: Mäntykustannus, 2012 * ''Maupertuis en Laponie'', with Anouchka Vasak, Paris: Hermann, 2014 * ''Maan muoto'', with Marja Itkonen-Kaila, Tornio: Väylä, 2019 * ''Markkasen galaksit. Tapio Markkanen in memoriam'', edited with Johan Stén, Helsinki: Ursa, 2019 * ''Valon aika'', with Johan Stén, Helsinki: Art House, 2019 * ''Pohjan Tornio. Matkamiesten ääniä vuosisatain varrelta 1519-1919'', Rovaniemi: Väylä, 2022

Essay collections

* ''Danse macabre: Eurooppalaisen matkakirja'', Jyväskylä: Atena, 1994 * ''Tuhat vuotta'', Helsinki: WSOY, 1998 * ''Minä ja Dolly: Kolumneja, esseitä, runoja'', Jyväskylä: Atena, 1999 * ''Oodi ilolle: Matkoja, maita, kaupunkeja'', Turku: Enostone, 2010 * ''Joka paikan akateemikko'', Turku: Enostone, 2012

Edited essay collections

* ''Elämän puu'', illustrated by Martti Ruokonen, Helsinki: WSOY, 1997 * ''Elämän värit'', graphic design by Jussi Jäppinen, Jyväskylä: Kopijyvä, 2003 * ''Elämän vuodenajat'', photographs by Seppo Nykänen, Jyväskylä: Minerva, 2005

Edited poem collections

* Lasse Heikkilä: ''Balladi Ihantalasta. Runoja kesästä 1944'', Osmo Pekonen (ed.), Helsinki & Jyväskylä: Kopijyvä/Minerva, 1999, 2007, 2016 * Charles Péguy: ''Chartres’n tie: Charles Péguy’n runoja'', translated by Anna-Maija Raittila et alia, Osmo Pekonen (ed.), Jyväskylä: Minerva, 2003

Diaries

* ''Saint-Malosta Sääksmäelle. Päiväkirjastani 2014-2015'', Tampere: Enostone, 2015 * ''Minäkin Arkadiassa. Päiväkirjastani 2016-2017''. Tampere: Enostone, 2017 * ''Unikukkia, ulpukoita. Päiväkirjastani 2018-2019''. Rovaniemi: Väylä, 2019

Prose translations

* Philippe Quéau: ''Lumetodellisuus'' (Le virtuel: Vertus et vertiges, 1993), translated into Finnish by Osmo Pekonen, Helsinki: Art House, 1995 * Alexei Sossinsky: ''Solmut: Erään matemaattisen teorian synty'' (Nœuds: Genèse d’une théorie mathématique, 1999), translated into Finnish by Osmo Pekonen, Helsinki: Art House, 2002 * Bo Lindberg: ''Latina ja Eurooppa'' (Europa och latinet, 1993), translated into Finnish by Osmo Pekonen, Jyväskylä: Atena, 1997 (2nd edition 2009) * Peter Kravanja: ''Visconti, Proustin lukija'' (Visconti, lecteur de Proust, 2004), translated into Finnish by Osmo Pekonen, Jyväskylä & Helsinki: Minerva, 2006 * Mary Terrall: ''Maupertuis, maapallon muodon mittaaja'' (The Man Who Flattened the Earth. Maupertuis and the Sciences in the Enlightenment, 2002), translated into Finnish by Osmo Pekonen, Tornio: Väylä, 2015 * Émilie du Châtelet: ''Tutkielma onnesta'' (Discours sur le bonheur), translated into Finnish by Osmo Pekonen, Kuopio: Hai, 2016 * Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis: ''Fyysinen Venus'' (Vénus physique, 1745), translated into Finnish by Osmo Pekonen, Helsinki: Art House, 2017 * Roger Picard: ''Salonkien aika'' (Les salons littéraires et la société française 1610–1789, New York 1943), translated into Finnish by Osmo Pekonen & Juhani Sarkava, Helsinki: Art House, 2018 * Francis Godwin: ''Lento kuuhun'' (The Man in the Moone, London 1638), translated into Finnish by Osmo Pekonen, Helsinki: Basam Books, 2021

Translations of ancient poetry

* ''Beowulf'', translation into Finnish and commentaries by Osmo Pekonen & Clive Tolley, Helsinki: WSOY, 1999. Second edition: WSOY 2007 * ''Widsith: Anglosaksinen muinaisruno'', translation into Finnish and commentaries by Osmo Pekonen & Clive Tolley, Jyväskylä: Minerva, 2004 * ''Waldere: Anglosaksinen muinaisruno'', translation into Finnish and commentaries by Jonathan Himes, Osmo Pekonen & Clive Tolley, Jyväskylä: Minerva, 2005 * Gustav Philip Creutz: ''Atis ja Camilla'' (Atis och Camilla, 1761), translated into Finnish by Osmo Pekonen, Turku: Faros, 2019

Books with a preface by Osmo Pekonen

Ivar Ekeland Ivar I. Ekeland (born 2 July 1944, Paris) is a French mathematician of Norwegian descent. Ekeland has written influential monographs and textbooks on nonlinear functional analysis, the calculus of variations, and mathematical economics, as well a ...

: ''Paras mahdollisista maailmoista'' (Le meilleur des mondes possibles, 2000), translated into Finnish by Susanna Maaranen, Helsinki: Art House, 2004 * Réginald Outhier: ''Matka Pohjan perille'' (Journal d'un voyage au Nord, 1744), translated into Finnish by Marja Itkonen-Kaila, Rovaniemi: Väylä, 2011 *

Jean-François Regnard Jean-François Regnard (7 February 1655 – 4 September 1709), "the most distinguished, after Molière, of the comic poets of the seventeenth century", was a dramatist, born in Paris, who is equally famous now for the travel diary he kept of a vo ...

: ''Retki Lappiin'' (Voyage de Laponie, 1731), translated into Finnish by Marja Itkonen-Kaila, Rovaniemi: Väylä, 2012 * Lassi Nummi: ''Le jardin de la vie'', a selection of poems translated into French by Yves Avril, Orléans: Paradigme, 2015 * Auli Särkiö: ''Sarmatie'' (Sarmatia, 2011), translated into French by Yves Avril, Mont de Laval: Grand Tétras, 2015 *

Eino Leino Eino Leino (born Armas Einar Leopold Lönnbohm; 6 July 1878 – 10 January 1926) was a Finnish poet and journalist who is considered one of the pioneers of Finnish poetry and a national poet of Finland. His poems combine modern and Finnish fo ...

: ''"Doch ein Lied steht über allen..."'', a selection of poems translated into German by Manfred Stern, Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovač, 2017 *

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...

: ''Mikromegas. Filosofinen kertomus'' (Micromégas: histoire philosophique, 1752), translated into Finnish by Marja Haapio, Helsinki: Basam Books, 2019

References

*
Osmo Pekonen homepage
*
Descartes Prize nominee citation

Chaix d'Est Ange Prize
*

External links

* (not updated anymore) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pekonen, Osmo 1960 births 2022 deaths Finnish mathematicians 21st-century Finnish writers Academic staff of the University of Helsinki International Mathematical Olympiad participants People from Mikkeli