Ryszard Syski (April 8, 1924 in

Płock Płock (pronounced ) is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by GUS on 31 December 2021, there were 116,962 inhabitants in the city. Its full ceremonial name, according to th ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

- June 11, 2007 in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ce ...

) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

whose research was in

queueing theory Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because the ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he was in the Armia Krajowa with his parents, partaking in the

Warsaw uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...

, being imprisoned in Lamsdorf,

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

and

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

(1944), and joining the Polish Second Corps for fights in Italy (1945). His studies in mathematics started in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, at the

Polish University Abroad The Polish University Abroad, or Polish University in Exile ( pl, Polski Uniwersytet na Obczyźnie, abbreviated PUNO), was initially established in London in 1949 (de facto 1952). The Polish University Abroad has a B.A. programme and does researc ...

(1946). He joined ''Automatic Telephone and Electric Co.'' in London (1952). He got his

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

(1954) and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

(1961) at

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, on the dissertation ''Stochastic Process in Banach space and its Applications to Congestion Theory''. Encouraged by Thomas L. Saaty he moved to

College Park, Maryland College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and is approximately four miles (6.4 km) from the northeast border of Washington, D.C. The population was 34,740 at the 2020 United States Census. It is best known ...

, joining the mathematics faculty of

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

(1961–1999), founded the journal

Stochastic Processes and their Applications ''Stochastic Processes and Their Applications'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier for the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability. The editor-in-chief is Sylvie Méléard. The principal focus ...

(1973) and was fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Syski wrote over forty journal articles, often collaborating with notables such as Félix Pollaczek,

Lajos Takács Lajos Takács (August 21, 1924 (Maglód) – December 4, 2015) was a Hungarian mathematician, known for his contributions to probability theory and in particular, queueing theory. He wrote over two hundred scientific papers and six books. He st ...

, Julian Keilson and Wim Cohen. Syski died of complications from a brain injury received during a fall.obituary
in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' (July 6, 2007)

Books

*''Introduction to congestion theory in telephone systems'' (

North-Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a p ...

, 1960) *''Passage times for Markov chains'' (1992)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syski, Ryszard 1924 births 2007 deaths People from Płock 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 20th-century Polish mathematicians 21st-century Polish mathematicians Queueing theorists Alumni of the University of London University of Maryland, College Park faculty Home Army members Warsaw Uprising insurgents Polish emigrants to the United States Polish expatriates in the United Kingdom