World-renowned Azerbaijani scientist dies in the USA

Lotfi Zadeh, a world-renowned mathematician and professor emeritus of computer science at UC Berkley, died at the age of 96 in California on 6 September.

Lotfi (Lutfali) Aleskerzadeh was born to a mixed Azerbaijani-Jewish family in Baku. From 1932 onwards he lived in Iran, and in 1944 moved to the USA, where he took a job at the University of California under the name Lotfi Zadeh. 

He gained world renown after the publication of his seminal work on fuzzy sets in 1965, and in 1973, proposed his theory on fuzzy logic, which is regarded as a revolutionary one and is widely applied across the world. 

Norman Zadeh, the scientist’s son, published his father’s last will, which, among others, contains his request to be buried in his historic homeland of Baku. 

According to Shahnaz Shahbazova, a professor at the Azerbaijani Technical University, who is a friend of the Zadeh family, the scientist’s body will be transported to Baku in about 10 days. She added that, in accordance with Lotfi Zadeh’s will, he would be buried in line with Muslim customs. 

Some social media users questioned Zadeh’s right to be buried in the Alley of Honor in Baku.  They argue that ‘Zadeh hasn’t done anything for Azerbaijan’, referring to the scientist’s neutral position on the Karabakh conflict. Meanwhile, other users ridiculed such comments, asking the rhetorical question of: ‘We wonder, what Nicolaus Copernicus (Pol. Mikołaj Kopernik) did for Poland?”

The Azerbaijani government hasn’t made any statements with regard to the procedure of Zadeh’s burial in Baku.