Andrzej Sołtysiak: “The best way for you is to study math, you just put some chalk in your pocket, go to the classroom and don’t care.” Choosing the field of studies – the entangled cooperation between Polish and Czech mathematicians

Abstract

The edited interview with a Polish mathematician Andrzej Sołtysiak shows the influence of his father in his decision to study mathematics, the importance of his relationship as a PhD student with his mentor Wiesław Żelazko and the transfer of contacts thanks to Czechoslovak-Polish conferences on functional analysis. The authors show the importance of interconnectedness, individual contacts, and their manifestation in individual memory. They also describe the dialogue characteristics of the interview.