Hello:   
      
   Mathematics seminar attending was influential in my academic maturity.   
      
   As I had mentioned in my book "DNA of Mathematics," during the mid-1960s, Iran   
   (under the previous kingdom) opened up many institutions of higher education   
   for the future developments of the country.   
      
   Every year (From 1967-72, during my undergraduate years at Pars    
   ollege-Tehran), prominent international mathematicians invited as keynote   
   speakers (through Iranian math association).   
      
   Some of them were:   
      
   Paul Halmos, Israel Herstein, Paul Erdos, Jean Dieudonne, Sergei Sobolove ,   
   Garrett Birkhoff and Lotfi Zadeh.   
      
   There is no doubt in my mind that concept of attending these seminars was   
   influential for me to embark upon creation of such revolutionary mathematical   
   sciences.   
      
   I also remember stimulating lectures of Stephen Smale (Dynamical systems),   
   when I was for a short time research fellow in fall of 1979 at the University   
   of California, Berkeley.   
      
   What is important here is presence of distinguished leaders of mathematics and   
   their influence on particularly young students, post docs etc.   
      
      
   Sincerely   
      
   Dr.Mehran Basti   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)