## Vladas Sidoravicius (1963-2019)

Our dear colleague Vladas Sidoravicius passed away unexpectedly on May 23, 2019, at the age of 55. Vladas was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1963. He did his undergraduate and masters studies from 1982 to 1986 at Vilnius University, where he received an Honor Diploma, and completed his PhD in Mathematics from Moscow University in 1990. After postdoctoral positions in the Netherlands and France, in 1993 he came to Brazil where he established himself as a leading scholar and spent over 20 years of his brilliant career, most of which at IMPA. In 2014, he was an Invited Speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians. In 2015 he moved to China where he played a fundamental role in constructing a Probability group at NYU-Shanghai. He was the author of over 100 papers with many different co-authors.

Vladas was well known for his unique mathematical insights. “We first met in 1986 and started discussing possibilities for his research. I quickly realized that his mathematical mind and thinking was very unusual. He showed great imagination and geometric visualization of random processes. So I suggested him to go to Moscow for his PhD studies in a ‘modern probability’ related to statistical physics,” reports Donatas Surgailis. In the late 1990s, he became fascinated with questions involving percolation. “During his short appointment in São Paulo, we spent many hours discussing percolation problems, throwing ideas at each other, struggling to see them through. The playfulness of those interchanges is something I had never had before, and have not had ever since,” describes Luiz Renato Fontes. “During my doctorate, he was constantly teaching me how to think and speak of mathematics using intuition,” adds Renato dos Santos.

With 12 co-authored articles, he was the main collaborator of Harry Kesten. During a visit to Cornell in 1997, Vladas had an accident and his Achilles tendon was ruptured almost entirely. He was so focused on the discussions with Kesten that he neglected going to the doctor, and kept biking 6 miles a day for two weeks with a single leg. One of their most influential works finally appeared in the Annals of Mathematics, where they studied the spread of an infection in a moving population. This article accomplished a rare case of a Shape Theorem not relying on subadditivity.

During his career, Vladas has shown not only genuine talent for mathematical research, but also to gather people and interact with many fellow researchers. A milestone was to put together the outstanding event “Workshop in Mathematical Physics” in 2001. He had noticed a crucial moment of the area, with very important results coming out. His quick perception and the ability of gathering people led him to organize a truly cutting-edge event, bringing together the most prominent figures in the field.

Vladas was one of the initiators of the Brazilian Schools of Probability, with the first edition held in 1997. He brought here a number of other prestigious events, including: in 2006 the International Congress of Mathematical Physics and in 2010 the only Clay Summer School that ever took place in the country. “He was a big promoter of Latin American probability, and he could make the difference. I will miss him a lot, especially his warmth and positivity,” tells Alejandro Ramírez. “His contribution to Brazilian Probability in general is inestimable, but in the case of Belo Horizonte, it is easy to estimate: there would be no Probability group here were it not for him,” finalizes Bernardo de Lima. Four of his former students are currently based at UFMG.

Our community certainly remembers Vladas for his busy travel schedule and his passion for international collaboration. “Nobody knew where he was, and when least expected you would just bump into him somewhere around the globe. He was taking the pollen of creative mathematical thoughts from country to country, leading to unique breedings that often times yielded solutions to otherwise unsolvable problems,” remembers Leonardo Rolla.

Vladas was also known for his unique way of speaking Portuguese. “I will always remember how he would use the most unusual constructions and still convey an impressively detailed and precise image of the objects he wanted to describe,” says Marcelo Hilário. “Together with his other advisees and friends, we would often joke by mimicking his way of speaking, reproducing his unique expressions and usual grammar mistakes.” He did have a remarkably open and warm relationship with his advisees. “He knew how to be a good mentor, who cared not only about fostering scholarly abilities, but also the emotional skills of his young peers,” adds Manuel Cabezas. “In his office, I learned that a theorem can be proved in the middle of laughter, small talk, and amusement.”

“Someone with an acute sensibility, refined taste for music and fine arts, and for mathematics. A very keen curiosity for science in general. It is really sad that he left us so early. It was a gift to have met him,” concludes Maria Eulália Vares..

About the photos. The first and second photo were taken during a visit to Harry Kesten at Cornell University in 2003. The third one is the photo of the “Workshop in Mathematical Physics”, which took place at Mambucaba, Brazil, in 2001. The last one was taken in 2016 at NYU-Shanghai.

## Bibliography

According to Mathscinet database, Vladas Sidoravicius has published, from 1990 to 2019, 93 papers with 73 co-authors. They are listed below in chronological order. It is important to mention that, besides papers that were under revision or recently accepted for publication, Vladas left several ongoing collaborations and papers in preparation. We therefore expect additions to the list.

Ignatiuk, I. A., Malyshev, V. A. and Sidoravičius, V.
Convergence of the stochastic quantization method
Probability theory and mathematical statistics, Vol. I (Vilnius, 1989)
Mokslas'', Vilnius, 1990, pp. 526-538

Sidoravičius, V.
Convergence of the stochastic quantization method for lattice R-gauge theories
New trends in probability and statistics, Vol. 1 (Bakuriani, 1990)
VSP, Utrecht, 1991, pp. 694-699

Statulyavichus, V. A. and Sidoravichyus, V.
Convergence to the Poisson law on algebras with canonical commutative relations and canonical anticommutative relations
Dokl. Akad. Nauk, 1992, Vol. 322(5), pp. 858-860

Ignatyuk, I. A., Malyshev, V. A. and Sidoravichus, V.
Convergence of the stochastic quantization method. II. The stochastic quantization method for Grassmannian Gibbs fields
Teor. Veroyatnost. i Primenen., 1992, Vol. 37(4), pp. 621-647

Ignatyuk, I. A., Malyshev, V. A. and Sidoravichyus, V.
Convergence of the stochastic quantization method. I
Teor. Veroyatnost. i Primenen., 1992, Vol. 37(2), pp. 241-253

Sidoravičius, V. and Statulevicius, V. A.
Convergence to Poisson law on algebraic structures for ψ-mixing systems
Probability theory and mathematical statistics (Kiev, 1991)
World Sci. Publ., River Edge, NJ, 1992, pp. 354-362

Sidoravičius, V. and Vares, M. E.
Ergodicity of Spitzer's renewal model
Stochastic Process. Appl., 1995, Vol. 55(1), pp. 119-130

Fontes, L. R., Isopi, M. and Sidoravićius, V.
Analyticity of the density and exponential decay of correlations in 2-d bootstrap percolation
Stochastic Process. Appl., 1996, Vol. 62(1), pp. 169-178

De Angelis, G. F., Jona-Lasinio, G. and Sidoravicius, V.
Berezin integrals and Poisson processes
J. Phys. A, 1998, Vol. 31(1), pp. 289-308

Kesten, H., Sidoravicius, V. and Zhang, Y.
Almost all words are seen in critical site percolation on the triangular lattice
Electron. J. Probab., 1998, Vol. 3, pp. no. 10, 75

Sidoravicius, V., Surgailis, D. and Vares, M. E.
An exclusion process with two types of particles and the hydrodynamic limit
Markov Process. Related Fields, 1998, Vol. 4(2), pp. 131-174

Sidoravicius, V., Triolo, L. and Vares, M. E.
On the forced motion of a heavy particle in a random medium. I. Existence of dynamics
Markov Process. Related Fields, 1998, Vol. 4(4), pp. 629-647

Sidoravicius, V., Surgailis, D. and Vares, M. E.
On the truncated anisotropic long-range percolation on Z^2
Stochastic Process. Appl., 1999, Vol. 81(2), pp. 337-349

Sidoravicius, V., Vares, M. E. and Surgailis, D.
Poisson broken lines process and its application to Bernoulli first passage percolation
Acta Appl. Math., 1999, Vol. 58(1-3), pp. 311-325

Brassesco, S., Presutti, E., Sidoravicius, V. and Vares, M. E.
Ergodicity and exponential convergence of a Glauber + Kawasaki process
On Dobrushin's way. From probability theory to statistical physics
Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2000, Vol. 198, pp. 37-49

Brassesco, S., Presutti, E., Sidoravicius, V. and Vares, M. E.
Ergodicity of a Glauber + Kawasaki process with metastable states
Markov Process. Related Fields, 2000, Vol. 6(2), pp. 181-203

Fontes, L. R. G., Jord ao Neves, E. and Sidoravicius, V.
Limit velocity for a driven particle in a random medium with mass aggregation
Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré Probab. Statist., 2000, Vol. 36(6), pp. 787-805

Pellegrinotti, A., Sidoravicius, V. and Vares, M. E.
Stationary state and diffusion for a charged particle in a one-dimensional medium with lifetimes
Teor. Veroyatnost. i Primenen., 1999, Vol. 44(4), pp. 796-825

Kesten, H., Sidoravicius, V. and Zhang, Y.
Percolation of arbitrary words on the close-packed graph of Bbb Z^2
Electron. J. Probab., 2001, Vol. 6, pp. no. 4, 27

Sidoravicius, V., Triolo, L. and Vares, M. E.
Mixing properties for mechanical motion of a charged particle in a random medium
Comm. Math. Phys., 2001, Vol. 219(2), pp. 323-355

Menshikov, M., Sidoravicius, V. and Vachkovskaia, M.
A note on two-dimensional truncated long-range percolation
Adv. in Appl. Probab., 2001, Vol. 33(4), pp. 912-929

Camia, F., Newman, C. M. and Sidoravicius, V.
Approach to fixation for zero-temperature stochastic Ising models on the hexagonal lattice
In and out of equilibrium (Mambucaba, 2000)
Birkhäuser Boston, Boston, MA, 2002, Vol. 51, pp. 163-183

Fontes, L. R., Schonmann, R. H. and Sidoravicius, V.
Stretched exponential fixation in stochastic Ising models at zero temperature
Comm. Math. Phys., 2002, Vol. 228(3), pp. 495-518

Camia, F., Newman, C. M. and Sidoravicius, V.
Cardy's formula for some dependent percolation models
Bull. Braz. Math. Soc. (N.S.), 2002, Vol. 33(2), pp. 147-156

Ramírez, A. F. and Sidoravicius, V.
Asymptotic behavior of a stochastic growth process associated with a system of interacting branching random walks
C. R. Math. Acad. Sci. Paris, 2002, Vol. 335(10), pp. 821-826

Kesten, H. and Sidoravicius, V.
Branching random walk with catalysts
Electron. J. Probab., 2003, Vol. 8, pp. no. 5, 51

Camia, F., Newman, C. M. and Sidoravicius, V.
A particular bit of universality: scaling limits of some dependent percolation models
Comm. Math. Phys., 2004, Vol. 246(2), pp. 311-332

Ramírez, A. F. and Sidoravicius, V.
Asymptotic behavior of a stochastic combustion growth process
J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS), 2004, Vol. 6(3), pp. 293-334

Sidoravicius, V. and Sznitman, A.-S.
Quenched invariance principles for walks on clusters of percolation or among random conductances
Probab. Theory Related Fields, 2004, Vol. 129(2), pp. 219-244

Friedli, S., de Lima, B. N. B. and Sidoravicius, V.
On long range percolation with heavy tails
Electron. Comm. Probab., 2004, Vol. 9, pp. 175-177

Fontes, L. R. G. and Sidoravicius, V.
Percolation
School and Conference on Probability Theory
Abdus Salam Int. Cent. Theoret. Phys., Trieste, 2004, pp. 101-201

Kesten, H. and Sidoravicius, V.
The spread of a rumor or infection in a moving population
Ann. Probab., 2005, Vol. 33(6), pp. 2402-2462

de Oliveira, P. M. C., Newman, C. M., Sidoravicious, V. and Stein, D. L.
Ising ferromagnet: zero-temperature dynamic evolution
J. Phys. A, 2006, Vol. 39(22), pp. 6841-6849

Alexander, K. S. and Sidoravicius, V.
Pinning of polymers and interfaces by random potentials
Ann. Appl. Probab., 2006, Vol. 16(2), pp. 636-669

Kesten, H. and Sidoravicius, V.
A phase transition in a model for the spread of an infection
Illinois J. Math., 2006, Vol. 50(1-4), pp. 547-634

Beffara, V., Sidoravicius, V., Spohn, H. and Vares, M. E.
Polymer pinning in a random medium as influence percolation
Dynamics & stochastics
Inst. Math. Statist., Beachwood, OH, 2006, Vol. 48, pp. 1-15

Kesten, H. and Sidoravicius, V.
A shape theorem for the spread of an infection
Ann. of Math. (2), 2008, Vol. 167(3), pp. 701-766

Kesten, H. and Sidoravicius, V.
A problem in one-dimensional diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) and positive recurrence of Markov chains
Ann. Probab., 2008, Vol. 36(5), pp. 1838-1879

van den Berg, J., Peres, Y., Sidoravicius, V. and Vares, M. E.
Random spatial growth with paralyzing obstacles
Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré Probab. Stat., 2008, Vol. 44(6), pp. 1173-1187

Kesten, H. and Sidoravicius, V.
Positive recurrence of a one-dimensional variant of diffusion limited aggregation
In and out of equilibrium. 2
Birkhäuser, Basel, 2008, Vol. 60, pp. 429-461

Bertoin, J. and Sidoravicius, V.
The structure of typical clusters in large sparse random configurations
J. Stat. Phys., 2009, Vol. 135(1), pp. 87-105

Sidoravicius, V. and Sznitman, A.-S.
Percolation for the vacant set of random interlacements
Comm. Pure Appl. Math., 2009, Vol. 62(6), pp. 831-858

Dickman, R., Rolla, L. T. and Sidoravicius, V.
Activated random walkers: facts, conjectures and challenges
J. Stat. Phys., 2010, Vol. 138(1-3), pp. 126-142

Beffara, V., Sidoravicius, V. and Vares, M. E.
Randomized polynuclear growth with a columnar defect
Probab. Theory Related Fields, 2010, Vol. 147(3-4), pp. 565-581

Kesten, H. and Sidoravicius, V.
A problem in last-passage percolation
Braz. J. Probab. Stat., 2010, Vol. 24(2), pp. 300-320

Marchetti, D. H. U., Sidoravicius, V. and Vares, M. E.
Oriented percolation in one-dimensional 1/|x-y|^2 percolation models
J. Stat. Phys., 2010, Vol. 139(6), pp. 941-959

Hilário, M. R., Louidor, O., Newman, C. M., Rolla, L. T., Sheffield, S. and Sidoravicius, V.
Fixation for distributed clustering processes
Comm. Pure Appl. Math., 2010, Vol. 63(7), pp. 926-934

Rolla, L. T., Sidoravicius, V., Surgailis, D. and Vares, M. E.
The discrete and continuum broken line process
Markov Process. Related Fields, 2010, Vol. 16(1), pp. 79-116

Bertoin, J., Sidoravicius, V. and Vares, M. E.
A system of grabbing particles related to Galton-Watson trees
Random Structures Algorithms, 2010, Vol. 36(4), pp. 477-487

Sidoravicius, V. and Sznitman, A.-S.
Connectivity bounds for the vacant set of random interlacements
Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré Probab. Stat., 2010, Vol. 46(4), pp. 976-990

Rolla, L. T. and Sidoravicius, V.
Absorbing-state phase transition for driven-dissipative stochastic dynamics on Bbb Z
Invent. Math., 2012, Vol. 188(1), pp. 127-150

Kesten, H., Ramírez, A. F. and Sidoravicius, V.
Asymptotic shape and propagation of fronts for growth models in dynamic random environment
Probability in complex physical systems
Springer, Heidelberg, 2012, Vol. 11, pp. 195-223

den Hollander, F., dos Santos, R. and Sidoravicius, V.
Law of large numbers for non-elliptic random walks in dynamic random environments
Stochastic Process. Appl., 2013, Vol. 123(1), pp. 156-190

Marchetti, D. H. U., Sidoravicius, V. and Vares, M. E.
Commentary to: Oriented percolation in one-dimension 1/|x-y|^2 percolation models [MR2646494]
J. Stat. Phys., 2013, Vol. 150(4), pp. 804-805

Damron, M., Kogan, H., Newman, C. M. and Sidoravicius, V.
Fixation for coarsening dynamics in 2D slabs
Electron. J. Probab., 2013, Vol. 18, pp. No. 105, 20

Ben Arous, G., Fribergh, A. and Sidoravicius, V.
Lyons-Pemantle-Peres monotonicity problem for high biases
Comm. Pure Appl. Math., 2014, Vol. 67(4), pp. 519-530

Kesten, H., de Lima, B. N. B., Sidoravicius, V. and Vares, M. E.
On the compatibility of binary sequences
Comm. Pure Appl. Math., 2014, Vol. 67(6), pp. 871-905

Cabezas, M., Rolla, L. T. and Sidoravicius, V.
Non-equilibrium phase transitions: activated random walks at criticality
J. Stat. Phys., 2014, Vol. 155(6), pp. 1112-1125

den Hollander, F., Kesten, H. and Sidoravicius, V.
Random walk in a high density dynamic random environment
Indag. Math. (N.S.), 2014, Vol. 25(4), pp. 785-799

Damron, M., Kogan, H., Newman, C. M. and Sidoravicius, V.
Coarsening in 2D slabs
Topics in percolative and disordered systems
Springer, New York, 2014, Vol. 69, pp. 15-22

Rolla, L. T., Sidoravicius, V. and Tournier, L.
Greedy clearing of persistent Poissonian dust
Stochastic Process. Appl., 2014, Vol. 124(10), pp. 3496-3506

Ahlberg, D., Sidoravicius, V. and Tykesson, J.
Bernoulli and self-destructive percolation on non-amenable graphs
Electron. Commun. Probab., 2014, Vol. 19, pp. no. 40, 6

Hilário, M. R., de Lima, B. N. B., Nolin, P. and Sidoravicius, V.
Embedding binary sequences into Bernoulli site percolation on Z^3
Stochastic Process. Appl., 2014, Vol. 124(12), pp. 4171-4181

Dembo, A., Huang, R. and Sidoravicius, V.
Walking within growing domains: recurrence versus transience
Electron. J. Probab., 2014, Vol. 19, pp. no. 106, 20

Dembo, A., Huang, R. and Sidoravicius, V.
Monotone interaction of walk and graph: recurrence versus transience
Electron. Commun. Probab., 2014, Vol. 19, pp. no. 76, 12

Sidoravicius, V.
Criticality and phase transitions: five favorite pieces
Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians---Seoul 2014. Vol. IV
Kyung Moon Sa, Seoul, 2014, pp. 199-224

Sidoravicius, V. and Stauffer, A.
Phase transition for finite-speed detection among moving particles
Stochastic Process. Appl., 2015, Vol. 125(1), pp. 362-370

Aizenman, M., Duminil-Copin, H. and Sidoravicius, V.
Random currents and continuity of Ising model's spontaneous magnetization
Comm. Math. Phys., 2015, Vol. 334(2), pp. 719-742

Foss, S., Rolla, L. T. and Sidoravicius, V.
Greedy walk on the real line
Ann. Probab., 2015, Vol. 43(3), pp. 1399-1418

Damron, M., Eckner, S. M., Kogan, H., Newman, C. M. and Sidoravicius, V.
Coarsening dynamics on Z^d with frozen vertices
J. Stat. Phys., 2015, Vol. 160(1), pp. 60-72

Ahlberg, D., Duminil-Copin, H., Kozma, G. and Sidoravicius, V.
Seven-dimensional forest fires
Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré Probab. Stat., 2015, Vol. 51(3), pp. 862-866

Damron, M., Newman, C. M. and Sidoravicius, V.
Absence of site percolation at criticality in Bbb Z^2× 0, 1\
Random Structures Algorithms, 2015, Vol. 47(2), pp. 328-340

Hilário, M. R., den Hollander, F., dos Santos, R. S., Sidoravicius, V. and Teixeira, A.
Random walk on random walks
Electron. J. Probab., 2015, Vol. 20, pp. no. 95, 35

Hilário, M. R., Sidoravicius, V. and Teixeira, A.
Cylinders' percolation in three dimensions
Probab. Theory Related Fields, 2015, Vol. 163(3-4), pp. 613-642

Kozma, G. and Sidoravicius, V.
Lower bound for the escape probability in the Lorentz mirror model on Z^2
Israel J. Math., 2015, Vol. 209(2), pp. 683-685

Kiss, D., Manolescu, I. and Sidoravicius, V.
Planar lattices do not recover from forest fires
Ann. Probab., 2015, Vol. 43(6), pp. 3216-3238

Markarian, R., Rolla, L. T., Sidoravicius, V., Tal, F. A. and Vares, M. E.
Stochastic perturbations of convex billiards
Nonlinearity, 2015, Vol. 28(12), pp. 4425-4434

Ahlberg, D., Damron, M. and Sidoravicius, V.
Inhomogeneous first-passage percolation
Electron. J. Probab., 2016, Vol. 21, pp. Paper No. 4, 19

Damron, M., Kogan, H., Newman, C. M. and Sidoravicius, V.
Coarsening with a frozen vertex
Electron. Commun. Probab., 2016, Vol. 21, pp. Paper No. 9, 4

Duminil-Copin, H., Sidoravicius, V. and Tassion, V.
Absence of infinite cluster for critical Bernoulli percolation on slabs
Comm. Pure Appl. Math., 2016, Vol. 69(7), pp. 1397-1411

Aymone, M. and Sidoravicius, V.
Partial sums of biased random multiplicative functions
J. Number Theory, 2017, Vol. 172, pp. 343-382

Duminil-Copin, H., Sidoravicius, V. and Tassion, V.
Continuity of the phase transition for planar random-cluster and Potts models with 1 ≤ q ≤ 4
Comm. Math. Phys., 2017, Vol. 349(1), pp. 47-107

Sidoravicius, V. and Teixeira, A.
Absorbing-state transition for stochastic sandpiles and activated random walks
Electron. J. Probab., 2017, Vol. 22, pp. Paper No. 33, 35

Grassberger, P., Hilário, M. R. and Sidoravicius, V.
Percolation in media with columnar disorder
J. Stat. Phys., 2017, Vol. 168(4), pp. 731-745

Rolla, L. T. and Sidoravicius, V.
Stability of the greedy algorithm on the circle
Comm. Pure Appl. Math., 2017, Vol. 70(10), pp. 1961-1986

Sidoravicius, V. and Tournier, L.
Note on a one-dimensional system of annihilating particles
Electron. Commun. Probab., 2017, Vol. 22, pp. Paper No. 59, 9

Cabezas, M., Rolla, L. T. and Sidoravicius, V.
Recurrence and density decay for diffusion-limited annihilating systems
Probab. Theory Related Fields, 2018, Vol. 170(3-4), pp. 587-615

Berger, N., Hoffman, C. and Sidoravicius, V.
Non-uniqueness for specifications in 2+\epsilon
Ergodic Theory Dynam. Systems, 2018, Vol. 38(4), pp. 1342-1352

Duminil-Copin, H., Hilário, M. R., Kozma, G. and Sidoravicius, V.
Brochette percolation
Israel J. Math., 2018, Vol. 225(1), pp. 479-501

Kious, D. and Sidoravicius, V.
Phase transition for the once-reinforced random walk on Bbb Z^d-like trees
Ann. Probab., 2018, Vol. 46(4), pp. 2121-2133

Basu, R., Sidoravicius, V. and Sly, A.
Lipschitz embeddings of random fields
Probab. Theory Related Fields, 2018, Vol. 172(3-4), pp. 1121-1179

Huang, R., Kious, D., Sidoravicius, V. and Tarrès, P.
Explicit formula for the density of local times of Markov jump processes
Electron. Commun. Probab., 2018, Vol. 23, pp. Paper No. 90, 7

Curien, N., Kozma, G., Sidoravicius, V. and Tournier, L.
Uniqueness of the infinite noodle
Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré D, 2019, Vol. 6(2), pp. 221-238

Rolla, L. T., Sidoravicius, V. and Zindy, O.
Universality and Sharpness in Activated Random Walks
Ann. Henri Poincaré, 2019, Vol. 20(6), pp. 1823-1835

Cabezas, M.; Dembo, A.; Sarantsev, A.; Sidoravicius, V.
Brownian particles with rank-dependent drifts: out-of-equilibrium behavior
Comm. Pure Appl. Math., 2019, Vol. 72(7), pp. 1424–1458

Sidoravicius, V.; Stauffer, A.
Multi-particle diffusion limited aggregation
Invent. Math., 2019, Vol. 218(2), pp. 491–571