Séminaire Lotharingien de Combinatoire, 91B.0 (2024), 26 pp.
Arun Ram
Ian G. Macdonald: Works of Art
Preamble.
This paper was prepared for the occasion of a lecture in tribute to Ian G. Macdonald, delivered at
FPSAC 2024 in Bochum, Germany on 22 July 2024. I want to express thanks to the Executive Committee of FPSAC,
the Organizing Committee of FPSAC 2024, and to the whole of our FPSAC 2024 community for making this lecture a possibility
and for considering me for its delivery. Macdonald is my hero, and to be asked to play such a role in his legacy touches me deeply.
For this paper I have chosen a few selected topics from Macdonald's immense contributions to highlight (Macdonald polynomials, classification of affine root systems, cohomology and proof of the Weil conjectures for symmetric products of a curve, and the Clifford chain).
I hope that you, as reader, will have your own favorites from Macdonald's \oe uvre and that your choices are
equally stimulating, but different from mine. The final sections of this article highlight some of Macdonald's service contributions:
as an influencer, as a translator, and as an expositor.
Received: July 28, 2024.
Accepted: August 9, 2024.
Final version: August 16, 2024.
The following versions are available: