Overview

The 16th International Symposium on Orthogonal Polynomials, Special Functions and Applications (OPSFA16), organized by the Centre de recherches mathématiques took place online from June 13-17, 2022.
This conference was dedicated to the memory of Richard Askey and Richard Askey Memorial Day was memorable. The speakers were able by their presentation to make us travel in time and thus allow us to relive the life of Dick. The testimonies of all the actors of this day demonstrated to what extent Dick was a very great mathematician but also a caring, warm and generous person of his time and knowledge. Following this Day, we would like to share this event with the community. You will find the slides of the speakers and also a video of their presentation in order to remember this great researcher.

Who is Richard Askey?

Richard Allen (Dick) Askey was born on June 4, 1933 and died at the age of 86 on October 9, 2019. He revitalized the subject of special functions by his very deep insight into mathematical analysis and discrete mathematics. Among some of his many contributions, we note the Askey—Wilson integral and polynomials, Askey-Gasper positivity results, the Askey-Roy integral, the Askey-Ismail combinatorial works and his work on Pollaczek polynomials. One of Dick Askey's major contributions was the insight to see that many q-series identities, old and new, are different q-analogies of the beta integral. Askey also had major contributions in the explanation and extension of the work of Ramanujan. He promoted multivariate special functions, analysis on root systems, and Macdonald-type identities.