It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Professor George M. Zaslavsky on 25 November 2008. George was a Founding Editor of Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science in 1990–1991, and he continued his editorial duties until just before his illness forced him to retire in late 2008.
The journal Chaos evolved from a series of Russian–U.S. meetings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which were supported by Kenneth W. Ford—Executive Director of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) at the time—and his Russian publishing contacts. George Zaslavsky was instrumental in bringing the Russians to the table—literally and figuratively. Together with his colleagues Boris V. Chirikov, Roald Z. Sagdeev, and Yakov G. Sinai, he served on the Steering Committee of the “Soviet–American Conference/Workshop on Chaos,” which was held in Tarusa, River Oka, USSR, 6–10 August 1990.
In his nearly 20-year career as an Editor, George contributed in manifold ways to the success of Chaos and, more generally, to the emergence of the field of nonlinear science. In the earliest days of the journal, George, along with his Russian colleagues and fellow Chaos Editors, Anatoly I. Neishtadt and Lev A. Ostrovsky, took the lead in arranging for submissions received in Russian to be reviewed by Russian reviewers in the field. If a paper successfully completed this process, the AIP arranged for it to be translated into English and published in Chaos. George was also a Coeditor of several outstanding focus issues: “Soviet-American Meeting on Chaos” (Vol. 1, Issue 2, 1991), “Self-Similarity and Renormalization in Chaotic Dynamics” (Vol. 7, Issue 1, 1997), “Chaotic Mixing and Transport of Particles and Waves in Flows and in Transition to Turbulence” (Vol. 10, Issue 1, 2000), and “The ‘Fermi–Pasta–Ulam’ Problem—The First 50 Years” (Vol. 15, Issue 1, 2005).
George Zaslavsky was born on 31 May 1935 in Odessa, Ukraine (former USSR) and earned his Ph.D. in 1964 from Novosibirsk University. From 1964 to 1970, he worked in the Institute of Nuclear Physics at Novosibirsk before moving to the Institute of Physics in Krasnoyarsk from 1970 to 1984. Dr. Zaslavsky served as Head of the Dynamical Systems Group of the Space Research Institute in Moscow from 1984 to 1991. In 1991, Dr. Zaslavsky visited the University of California at Santa Barbara. In 1992, he accepted a position in the Department of Physics and Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of the New York University as a professor of Physics and Mathematics, where he remained until his death. Among other honors, George received a Doctorate honoris causa from Aix-Marseilles University 1.
But these unadorned bare facts do not come close to capturing the wonderful essence of George Zaslavsky, who was an individual of great personal strength and will, intellectually and physically, great humor, and great generosity. His intellectual strength is reflected in his many contributions to dynamical systems theory, classical and quantum chaos, plasma physics, and statistical mechanics. His physical strength and will are captured by an anecdote recalling a frightening occurrence during the meeting in Tarusa. While swimming in the rapidly flowing river Oka, George was nearly swept—and trapped—under a moored boat. As we anxious colleagues on the shore tried to help, George managed with powerful strokes to pull himself free. Within seconds of emerging from the water, George was smiling and laughing with us about the whole episode. Finally, George’s generosity was reflected, among many other ways, in his sharing of his insights, time, and advice with colleagues. He touched the lives of countless people in and out of the scientific world and has left a great legacy, personal and professional. We will miss him greatly.
