Yousef Alavi

Yousef Alavi (March 19, 1928 – May 21, 2013)^[1] was an Iranian born American mathematician who specialized in combinatorics and graph theory. He received his PhD from Michigan State University in 1958.^[2] He was a professor of mathematics at Western Michigan University from 1958 until his retirement in 1996;^[3] he chaired the department from 1989 to 1992.^[4]

Yousef Alavi
Born	(1928-03-19)March 19, 1928 Iran
Died	May 21, 2013(2013-05-21) (aged 85)
Nationality	Iranian-American
Alma mater	Michigan State University (PhD, 1958)
Known for	Combinatorics, graph theory
Awards	Distinguished Service Award, Michigan Section of the MAA (1987)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Western Michigan University

Alavi was known for complaining that "this is highly irregular!" He was also a frequent host for Paul Erdős on his visits to Western Michigan. On one of these visits, these two things came together: he made his usual complaint at a time when Erdős and Ronald Graham were present. This sparked a discussion on what it might mean for a graph to be highly irregular, kicking off a line of joint research on highly irregular graphs through which Alavi obtained Erdős number one.^[5]

In 1987, he received the first Distinguished Service Award of the Michigan Section of the Mathematical Association of America due to his 30 years of service to the MAA; at that time, the Michigan House and Senate issued a special resolution honoring him.^[6]