Aristotle Arapostathis

1954 - 2021

Aristotle Arapostathis
Austin - Aristotle Arapostathis passed away peacefully at his home in Austin, Texas on May 19, 2021. Surrounded by family and friends, Ari bravely faced a sudden diagnosis of liver cancer that took him away from us too soon.
Born in 1954 in Athens, Greece, Ari was the cherished only son of Theodoros and Eleni Arapostathis. His summers were spent swimming in the "wine dark" sea off the coast of Kalamata, and at a favorite cabin in the Taygetos mountain range, above Sparta. In his formative years, he was educated at Athens College, a private preparatory school. Upon graduation, Ari and his classmates set sail to prestigious universities far and wide. Ari landed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1976. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley in 1978 and 1982. Thereafter, he joined the faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin in 1982, where he remained for the duration of his life.
Ari was a passionate academic, not distracted by the latest trends or the pursuit of accolades. He aimed for the long game. He understood from his early days taking mathematics courses at Berkeley that he had a unique gift for deep mathematical analysis, and he nurtured that gift over the course of his career. He focused on research problems he believed in, and he pursued them relentlessly.
Ari devoted the last 25 years of his career to the problem of understanding how to optimally steer the evolution in time of processes that evolve with uncertainty. This fundamental problem has numerous applications in resource allocation, management of service systems, communication networks, and power systems, among many other application areas. It is often the case that those soldiers who lay the foundations for more applied engineering endeavors go unknown and unsung by the broader engineering community. Ari will be remembered for writing, with cherished colleagues Vivek Borkar and Mrinal Ghosh, a pure, parsimonious, and uncompromising research monograph on his life's work.
Collaboration was an important part of Ari's academic life. He leaves behind a network of co-authors and students with whom he joyously shared his enthusiasm for research. Ari's generosity with his time and intellect was well-known among his colleagues. He was often a point of reference for difficult mathematical problems, problems that he would tackle with fury, staying up all night, until he was victorious. If there is one word that students and colleagues alike would bring up to describe his ethos, it was "intensity'. He consistently believed he could find intellectual common ground with those around him, a quality that endeared him to his students and friends. Ari was a mentor by osmosis – people naturally found him and relied on him. He was always available for a coffee, a renaissance man who could engage on any topic from poetry, the best recording of various classical pieces, avant-garde film, to mathematics and politics.
Ari was a person with a unique ability to tolerate and accept the idiosyncrasies of human nature. He was often the only person who would step into difficult personal and professional challenges to support all sides and bring them closer. He saw an imperative to treat all matters rationally, with humanity and alacrity. When he saw a situation as unreasonable, he said so. He was a guardian of reason.
Aristotle leaves behind his mother Eleni Arapostathis, cousins Evanthia Kassaveti, Panagiota Nikitaki and nephews Evangelos Nikitakis, Dimitrios Kassavetis and niece Despoina Kassaveti, and many relatives who loved him dearly.
Ari, we will remember you: a friend, a colleague, a godparent, a hard worker, fast driver, intense in all that you do, among your vast collection of books and classical music, sharing meals with friends and much, much more.
Contributions to a scholarship fund in the name of Ari Arapostathis can be made through the Friends of Alec fund of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin at https://give.utexas.edu/?menu1=ENCE. Please select "Friends of Alec ECE" and mention the gift is in memory of Ari Arapostathis.
Additionally, those who knew Ari are keenly aware of his love for swimming, especially at Barton Springs Pool. Donations can be made by supporting the Save Our Springs Alliance: https://saveoursprings.salsalabs.org/basicfundraisingformcopy1/index.html.
Ithaka
BY C. P. CAVAFY
TRANSLATED BY EDMUND KEELEY
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.