Solomon Marcus (; 1 March 1925 – 17 March 2016) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

n mathematician, member of the Mathematical Section of the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

(full member from 2001) and emeritus professor of the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

's Faculty of Mathematics. His main research was in the fields of

mathematical analysis Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limit (mathematics), limits, and related theories, such as Derivative, differentiation, Integral, integration, measure (mathematics), measure, infinite sequences, series (m ...

, mathematical and computational linguistics and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

. He also published numerous papers on various cultural topics: poetics,

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

, philosophy, and history of science and education.

Early life and education

He was born in

Bacău Bacău ( , , ; hu, Bákó; la, Bacovia) is the main city in Bacău County, Romania. At the 2016 national estimation it had a population of 196,883, making it the 12th largest city in Romania. The city is situated in the historical region of ...

, Romania, to Sima and Alter Marcus, a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family of tailors. From an early age he had to live through dictatorships, war, infringements on free speech and free thinking as well as

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. At the age of 16 or 17 he started tutoring younger pupils in order to help his family financially. He graduated from Ferdinand I High School in 1944, and completed his studies at the

's Faculty of Science, Department of Mathematics, in 1949. He continued tutoring throughout college and later recounted in an interview that he had to endure hunger during those years and that till the age of 20 he only wore hand-me-downs from his older brothers.

Academic career

Marcus obtained his PhD in Mathematics in 1956, with a thesis on the ''

Monotonic function In mathematics, a monotonic function (or monotone function) is a function between ordered sets that preserves or reverses the given order. This concept first arose in calculus, and was later generalized to the more abstract setting of order ...

s of two variables'', written under the direction of

Miron Nicolescu Miron Nicolescu (; August 27, 1903 – June 30, 1975) was a Romanian mathematician, best known for his work in real analysis and differential equations. He was President of the Romanian Academy and Vice-President of the International Mathematical ...

. He was appointed Lecturer in 1955, Associate Professor in 1964, and became a Professor in 1966 (Emeritus in 1991). Marcus has contributed to the following areas: #Mathematical Analysis, Set Theory, Measure and Integration Theory, and Topology #Theoretical Computer Science #Linguistics #Poetics and Theory of Literature #Semiotics #Cultural Anthropology #History and Philosophy of Science #Education.

Publications by and on Marcus

Marcus published about 50 books, which have been translated into English, French,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, Hungarian,

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

, and about 400 research articles in specialized journals in almost all European countries, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, Japan,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

among others; he is cited by more than a thousand authors, including mathematicians, computer scientists, linguists, literary researchers, semioticians, anthropologists and philosophers. He is recognised as one of the initiators of mathematical linguistics and of mathematical poetics, and has been a member of the editorial board of tens of international scientific journals covering all his domains of interest. Marcus is featured in the 1999 book ''People and Ideas in Theoretical Computer Science''. and the 2015 ''The Human Face of Computing'' . A collection of his papers in English followed by some interviews and a brief autobiography was published in 2007 as ''Words and Languages Everywhere''. The book "Meetings with Solomon Marcus" (Spandugino Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, 2010, 1500 pages), edited by Lavinia Spandonide and

Gheorghe Păun Gheorghe Păun (; born December 6, 1950, in Cicănești, Argeș County) is a computer scientist from Romania, prominent for work on membrane computing and the P system. Păun studied mathematics at the University of Bucharest, obtaining an MSc. in ...

for Marcus' 85th birthday, includes recollections by several hundred people from a large variety of scientific and cultural fields, and from 25 countries. It also contains a longer autobiography.

Death

Marcus died of cardiac infections at the in Bucharest after a short stay at in Bucharest.

Honours

National Order of Faithful Service The National Order of Faithful Service ( ro, Ordinul Național "Serviciul Credincios") is the second highest national order of Romania, with the Order of the Star of Romania being the highest national order. Originally it was established as the Me ...

in the rank of Grand Officer, 2011. *

Order of the Star of Romania The Order of the Star of Romania (Romanian: ''Ordinul Steaua României'') is Romania's highest civil Order and second highest State decoration after the defunct Order of Michael the Brave. It is awarded by the President of Romania. It has five r ...

(

's highest civil Order) in the rank of Commander, 2015. *

Romanian Royal Family The Romanian royal family ( ro, Familia regală a României) was the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Romania, a constitutional monarchy in Central-Eastern Europe. The kingdom existed from 1881, when Carol I of Romania was proclaimed king, until ...

: Knight of the Royal Decoration of Nihil Sine Deo.

Notes

References

* Alexandra Bellow, Cristian S. Calude
Solomon Marcus (1925–2016)
''

Notices of the American Mathematical Society ''Notices of the American Mathematical Society'' is the membership journal of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), published monthly except for the combined June/July issue. The first volume appeared in 1953. Each issue of the magazine since ...

'' 64,10 (2017), 1216. * G. Păun, I. Petre, G. Rozenberg and A. Salomaa (eds.)
At the intersection of computer science with biology, chemistry and physics – In Memory of Solomon Marcus
''

Theoretical computer science computer science (TCS) is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on mathematical aspects of computer science such as the theory of computation, lambda calculus, and type theory. It is difficult to circumscribe the ...

'' 701 (2017), 1–234.
''Global Perspectives on Science and Spirituality (GPSS)''

Publication list on his web page
at the "

Simion Stoilow Simion Stoilow or Stoilov ( – 4 April 1961) was a Romanian mathematician, creator of the Romanian school of complex analysis, and author of over 100 publications. Biography He was born in Bucharest, and grew up in Craiova. His father, Colonel ...

Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy The "Simion Stoilow" Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy is a research institute in Bucharest, Romania. It is affiliated with the Romanian Academy, and it is named after Simion Stoilow, one of its founders. History On December 2 ...

''International Journal of Computers, Communications & Control''
Vol.I (2006), No.1, pp. 73–79, " Grigore C. Moisil: A Life Becoming a Myth", by Solomon Marcus, Editor's note about the author (p. 79)
Marcus' articles on semiotics at ''Potlatch''

External links

Solomon Marcus
at the University of Bucharest {{DEFAULTSORT:Marcus, Solomon 1925 births 2016 deaths 20th-century Romanian mathematicians Romanian semioticians Titular members of the Romanian Academy University of Bucharest faculty University of Bucharest alumni Romanian Jews People from Bacău Mathematical analysts Theoretical computer scientists Computational linguistics researchers Commanders of the Order of the Star of Romania Recipients of the National Order of Faithful Service