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\title{Ian Kogan\,\footnote{\uppercase{E}ulogy at the funeral ceremony, \uppercase{B}alliol \uppercase{C}ollege, \uppercase{O}xford \uppercase{U}niversity,  \uppercase{J}une 19, 2003}}

\author{M. SHIFMAN}

\address{William I. Fine Theoretical Physics Institute \\
University of Minnesota\\ 
116 Church Street S.E.\\ Minneapolis, MN 55455,
USA}

\maketitle



\noindent
When some people leave us, the world becomes
emptier and colder...

\vspace{1mm}


Ian Kogan was born into a Jewish family on September 14, 1958 in Glazov,
a small town in the Northern Urals, far away from all the cultural
centers of what was then the Soviet Union. All life in this town
revolved around a uranium plant where Ian's parents worked
for 41 years.

\vspace{1mm}

Seemingly out of the blue, at the age of 14,  Ian became interested in
physics,
and almost immediately
his teachers realized that he had a strong and original
mind. Ian enrolled  in  Correspondence Courses
of the Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology (MIPT).
Although Ian was always shy, in this endeavor
he showed  strong willpower and determination.

\vspace{1mm}

At the age of 16, Ian began his  life journey:
accompanied by his father he went to Moscow to pass the
entrance examinations at MIPT. He obtained the highest grades on all
written
examinations, and then ... Although Ian was extremely bright, way
beyond the average level, he  nearly failed  the oral
mathematics exam in which he was asked  killer problems.
This was  a trick routinely used by  ferocious anti-Semites
who held influential positions in Soviet mathematical schools.
Ian's ascent to the summit was not easy, but he never complained,
never.

\vspace{1mm}

I close my eyes and I see him as I first saw him in ITEP,
around 1980, in the hall of a large mansion occupied by theorists.
An awkwardly dressed provincial boy with dark black hair and
large brown eyes, deep and warm. To say that his eyelashes were
long and thick was an understatement. When he was blinking one could
think that it was a butterfly folding and unfolding its wings.

\vspace{1mm}

I close my eyes and I see Ian the way I saw him the last time in
Paris. An Oxford professor, wearing an elegant coat and neckerchief.
Part of his hair gone, with silver in the beard, but still the same
eyes glowing with warmth and kindness. I hear Ian's voice...

\vspace{1mm}

Twenty years elapsed between these two recollections, the span of
Ian's professional career.
Ian graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology,
in parallel completing his education in ITEP, in 1981. That he came
to ITEP was a great luck for him, for ITEP, and for me personally.
The ITEP Theory Department, with its creative atmosphere and
respect for deep thought, was just the right place for Ian.
 I was only one of his teachers, but I always thought of him as
a younger brother.

\vspace{1mm}

Ian  started his professional career with
hadronic physics, a topic to which he  repeatedly
returned throughout his life.  His scientific horizons
rapidly expanded; already in three years Ian was an early explorer of
Chern-Simons electrodynamics.
His interests were remarkably broad ---
from quantum chromodynamics to solid state physics, from financial market
fluctuations and risk assessment to strings, from quantum gravity
to conformal field theory --- a unique quality in the age of narrow
specialization. And everywhere he left his profound imprint. Ian
was one of the co-discoverers of phase transitions
in strings, and, lately, of the logarithmic conformal field theory
and the theory of multi-gravity. He championed the application of
logarithmic conformal field theory and string theory in solid state
physics.
It would be fair to say
that he circumnavigated theoretical physics. He had the spirit of a
pioneer and a scout --- always at the front line of research,
and, quite often, ahead of the front line. He had the stamina to go in
those directions where other people had no courage to pursue.
Ian's death is a tragedy for the
entire physics community.

\vspace{1mm}

Ian's attitude to physics was romantic. His admiration of
the beauty of the laws of nature never faded away,
and was as strong in 2003 as it was in 1972, the very beginning
of Ian's physics journey. Ian's enthusiasm was contagious.
Nikita Nekrasov recollects:

``It was
Ian's enthusiasm,  with which he was throwing formulae and
graphs
 on a blackboard
in Volodya Fock's appartment around 1989, that got me
contaminated with his urge to understand things, and express this
understanding
in terms of beautiful formulae.
I cannot say that I always agreed with  Ian on  physics issues,
but discussing them  was always interesting and fascinating, and, I think,
it was  very important for me
to be able to have these discussions with Ian. I
liked his aggressive style of talking physics, and  I learned a lot
from him.
In my family there is now an empty spot. We all thought of Ian as of
 a kind  spirit, who could bring sun on a gloomy day, tell a joke, drag
 us to go dancing tango,
or even go jogging without any idea of what it was like.''


\vspace{1mm}

Ian was always simmering with ideas. Always. He had more ideas than he
could possibly sort through. And he shared them generously with his
students at Oxford University and Balliol College, of which he became
a permanent member in 1994. This is what one of his recent students,
Guilherme Milhano, wrote in a farewell message:

``I am certainly just one amongst many. Many those for whom Ian
was a deciding factor in life. His unlimited support, unbound kindness
and generosity toward someone who could give back but very
little, find no other explanation than the rare selflessness.
That made Ian great and unique. I can only hope to do you
justice. I am proud to be your student and friend. Good bye, Ian."

\vspace{1mm}

During the two decades of his professional career Ian published almost 200
scientific papers. These involved sixty collaborators!
Indeed, his soul and his mind were open to everybody.
He had so many friends in Russia, England, the United States,
and, in fact,  everywhere in the world. Ian was truly cosmopolitan,
in the best sense of the word.

\vspace{1mm}

It was so easy to get him excited... just mention some
scientific problem. If the topic was deep enough, Ian would instantly
delve
into it, and before long, start generating
innovative suggestions and ideas. He was devouring books on economics,
mathematics, biology, history, and God knows what else. Once he
mentioned to me that he had just returned from a theological debate
with an orthodox rabbi!

\vspace{1mm}

Ian was a day-dreamer, both in physics and in life.
He combined a childishly joyful attitude
with the wisdom and the seriousness of a great man. That's why
children loved him. My daughters adored him when they were little,
and they still love him now, 20 years later.
He could talk to them as an equal, and yet seriously and responsibly
--- so that they felt respect and support.

\vspace{1mm}

On rare occasions when he decided that he had to rest, Ian loved to
watch James Bond movies. He knew them by heart. It was amazing to see
him getting agitated like a boy from the adventures of 007.

\vspace{1mm}

Ian was the kindest man I ever knew. Helping those
in need was as natural to him as breathing. When I was on my way to
the airport to fly to Oxford to say farewell to Ian, I got a message
from Eletskys. They wanted me to mention that when their little
son Misha, born 2.5 months prematurely, was on the brink of death,
Ian gave his blood to help bring their little child back to this world.
They will never forget... No, it is no surprise that Ian
had so many friends.

\vspace{1mm}

I think Ian's children ---  a daughter from the first marriage, and two
sons from the
second --- can be proud of their father. I hope that they will be proud of
him today, in ten years, and in twenty... always... I am proud to
have been his friend.

\vspace{1mm}

Being courageous and aggressive in science, in every-day life Ian was
gentle --- perhaps, too gentle --- vulnerable and defenseless.
 Sometimes
I felt that deep inside he was disturbed and not at peace with himself.
The last years in Oxford  seemed to bring a relief from this tension,
granting Ian the peace of mind he deserved.


\vspace{1mm}

Ian drove through his life in the fast lane.  Always.  He wanted to
understand more, he wanted to do more. He was at the peak of his
creative powers, full of plans for the future, a live pulsating lump of
energy. On the blackboard of Ian's office I saw a long list
of ``to do" things, which stretched well through the end of the
summer.

His heart could not cope. It suddenly stopped in the morning
of June 4, 2003, the day
after a long afternoon  seminar that Ian gave on his favorite topic of
multi-gravity  at ICTP in Triest.

\vspace{1mm}

Life can be so unfair ...

\vspace{1mm}

\noindent
When such people leave us, the world  becomes emptier and colder...


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