Jan Stanislaw Mycielski, 92, passed away peacefully on January 18, 2025, at his home in Boulder, Colorado. Jan was a professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, known for contributions to graph theory, combinatorics, settheory, topology and the philosophy of mathematics. He was born in 1932 in Wisniowa , Poland, into a family of Polish nobility. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Wroclaw in 1957 under the super vision of Stanislaw Hartman. He and his wife, Emilia, escaped Communist Poland, and following positions at the University of California, Berkeley and Case Western Reserve University, he took a permanent faculty position at CU in 1969.
Over the course of his career he took sabbaticals in France, at the University of Hawaii, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Jan was beloved for his kindness and endless passion for mathematics. He always possessed a deep curiosity about the workings of the world and was well-read in a wide variety of fields.
He loved to travel and gain new experiences, and was always ready to ask questions and engage in discourse until his curiosity was satisfied. He was always an enthusastic competitor in chess and Hex, and would offer a game to any and all who visited. He enjoyed encouraging children to study mathematics and giving them puzzles and challenges to solve.
Jan is preceded in death by his beloved wife, Emilia, and is survived by his adopted children, Mark Mycielski and Marysia Mycielski Bachman (Scott). He also leaves behind many members of his extended family and lifelong friends, whose companionship he cherished dearly.
February 7 would have been Jan's 93rd birthday, and he always enjoyed celebrating this day with friends and family. Please join us in a memorial celebration to share stories and memories of our time with Jan. We will have an open house celebration that will take place on Friday, February 7, at 1241 Meadowlark Dr., Boulder, 80303, from 1 PM to 4 PM.
Commemorations of Jan will begin at 2 PM.