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The memorial service for Ralf Koetter held at UCSD is video archived. Quite many of the stalwarts in Information theory field found it difficult to control their emotions when they spoke about him. Such was the level of closeness many people had with him. I have never got to directly interact with Ralf , but was aware about his stellar contributions to many areas in and related to coding. The most notable thing other than his well known research contribution is his amazing teaching skills. The two guest lectures given by him during David Forney’s MIT class in 2005 were simply stunning. He then had talked about Reed Solomon codes and that is by far the best lucid presentation of such a difficult topic, that I have ever seen. His sudden and untimely demise leaves an irreplaceable void on this planet. He was that good. So woefully cut short by cancer.
Alex Vardy knitted down a fitting tribute to his friend and colleague.
Vous l’avez fait Federer! Federer is the French open 2009 champion. Something in me was telling, even before the start of this grandslam tournament, that this is the year for Fedex to win at Roland Garos. Ever since Nadal lost to Soderling earlier, his case was strengthened even further. He has done it finally. What an year to win this. He is expecting his son to be born in few months and now, he can be at peace with the agony of not winning the French open, in spite of reaching the finals so many times. What a player he has been over the years. Todays match was much like the Federer-Murray US open final last year. Federer was superb. Soderling didn’t do too wrong, but that is the elegance and class of the great man Federer.
He has already moved to the pantheon of greats. Now it is a matter of adding more flavour to his already colourful charisma. All grand-slam championship as well now comes with this win. Incredible. Thank you Fedex for keeping us enthralled by your genius. Seeing it from Switzerland is even more exciting.
Footnote: Whenever I cross the Ecublens area near Crochy, the tennis courts, I remember Federer. I was told that he used to train there in early days of his wonderful tennis life. I am yet to figure out where exactly he did that school tennis training. Just out of curiosity! It may be just a few maters of walk from where I stay!
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