In memoriam: University celebrates College of Sciences professor Cornel Pasnicu

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 -Cornel Pasnicu, a professor of mathematics in the UTSA College of Sciences, passed away this summer at the age of 70 in San Antonio. With a research career spanning 47 years, he made important contributions to the study of the structure and classification of nuclear C*-algebras.

Pasnicu obtained his M.S. in mathematics from the University of Bucharest in 1977 and began writing research articles in the areas of operator theory and operator algebras as early as 1978.

Then, he was a principal researcher at the Institute of Mathematics in Bucharest, Romania, from 1980 until 1991.

In 1988, Pasnicu earned the Simon Stoilow Prize of the Romanian Academy, the most prestigious award for mathematicians under the age of 40.

In 1991 and 1992, he held visiting positions at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of Toronto in Canada.

Then, he was hired as an associate professor at the University of Puerto Rico, where he was promoted to full professor with tenure in 1997.

Pasnicu joined UTSA in 2011, where he served as a tenured professor until his passing.

In all, Pasnicu published over 50 refereed research articles in top mathematics journals and was invited to give talks at many conferences and research meetings. His work included collaborations with two giants of Romanian mathematics, Ciprian Foias and Dan Voiculescu, and a series of influential papers with other leaders in the field including George Elliott, Marius Dadarlat, Guihua Gong, Christopher Phillips and Mikael Rørdam.

His research was supported by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Army Research Office.

At the same time, Pasnicu was a highly appreciated teacher throughout his academic career. While demanding and exigent in his classes, his clear style, constant attention to detail and humor earned praise from his students.

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