November 10, 2008

2008Wannes Van de Velde, Belgian singer and poet (born 1937)^[†]

Wannes Van de Velde, born Willy Cecile Johannes Van de Velde, in Antwerp, was a Flemish folk singer, guitarist, musician, poet, puppeteer and artist. He is most famous for his songs Ik Wil deze Nacht in de Straten Verdwalen (1973), Mijn Mansarde and De Brug van Willebroek (1990). His work is often categorized as kleinkunst. Van de Velde was known for singing in his local dialect.

2008Kiyosi Itô, Japanese mathematician and academic (born 1915)^[†]

Kiyosi Itô was a Japanese mathematician who made fundamental contributions to probability theory, in particular, the theory of stochastic processes. He invented the concept of stochastic integral and stochastic differential equation, and is known as the founder of so-called Itô calculus. He also pioneered the world connections between stochastic calculus and differential geometry, known as stochastic differential geometry. He was invited for the International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm in 1962. So much were Itô's results useful to financial mathematics that he was sometimes called "the most famous Japanese in Wall Street".