20th September 2024, 11:17 am
Before moving to the US, I attended the Gelfand seminar and took some pictures. I was a regular participant and have some bittersweet memories from that time. I’ve written about my experiences in several blog posts related to Gelfand, who was my advisor.
The year was 1990, and I just acquired my first camera. I was about to leave the USSR for the US and took a bunch of pictures of family, friends, and other moments. I wasn’t happy with the photos I captured at the seminar due to the poor quality of the camera and the dim lighting in the lecture hall. For context, the seminar was held on Mondays from 7 to 10 pm. So I put the pictures away and forgot about them.
Recently, I decided to digitize all of my old pictures. While the seminar photos are still grainy, they feel more precious now. Perhaps it’s the fact that they’ve survived for over 30 years, or maybe I’ve just grown more sentimental.
A big part of the seminar was the networking that happened beforehand. Although the seminar was scheduled to start at 7 pm, it often began at random times, anywhere between 7 and 8:30 pm. Gelfand disliked tardiness, so everyone would arrive by 7 and hang. All of my photos were taken before the seminar: some in the hallway and some in the seminar room.
In the last three pictures, the socializing had ended, and the seminar was about to start.
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