Congratulations to colleagues

Alexander Grosberg , Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor of Physics and Mathematics at the Faculty of Physics and the Center for Research in the Liquid State of Matter at New York University, on the eve of T.M. Birshtein’s anniversary , wrote the following about her:

Science is, by nature, a joyful business. It’s hard to compare with anything the feeling you experience every time you understand something new that you didn’t understand before. This feeling is childish, in the warmest and best sense; its reflection can sometimes be seen in the smile of a smart child. Alas, as in any non-childish activity, there is a lot of boring routine in scientific work. Over the years, a scientist’s responsibilities and obligations grow - reviews, grants, reviews, lectures, not (always the) best students, etc. endlessly, and in the meantime the production of scientific results and articles becomes a habit, becomes boring, and ceases to excite. It is rare to see a childish smile of insight on the face of a venerable professor. Fortunately, there are exceptions to this rule, and Tatyana Maksimovna Birshtein is one of the brightest.

T.M. - a person with impeccable scientific taste and a sense of humor, friendly and at the same time sharply critical, does not tolerate abstruseness, welcomes understanding and tirelessly strives for it. She is in remarkable “intellectual shape.” Just like 38 years ago, when I met her for the first time, she is terribly happy with everything new, is interested in everything in the world, tries to develop her own independent opinion about every pressing issue of science or the surrounding life, does not tolerate sycophancy in front of her superiors, from the smallest to the largest. Dear Tatyana Maksimovna! Congratulating you (from the root “health”) on your remarkable anniversary, I warmly wish you good health (from the same root), new beautiful solved problems - and new children’s smiles of scientific understanding, of which you are such a master.

Published in abbreviation.

See the original at www.polit.ru/science/2008/12/20/birshtein_80.html