RIP Abdul-Aziz Yakubu (1958–2022)

A couple of weeks ago, I heard the very sad and unexpected news that Abdul-Aziz Yakubu had died. Aziz was great.

Like others, I also have some Aziz stories (but the one that I wanted to tell seemed a bit too light-hearted to tell immediately on social media): I know Aziz from my days helping out with MTBI as a PhD student. On one occasion, when somebody — one of the students? — was being a bit formal with my name as I entered a room and was also using my last name or something, I made the mistake of loudly proclaiming "I'm like Madonna. I only need one name." With a quietly wicked sense of humor (and with the knowledge that we'd all be amused by this, including me), Aziz proceeded to jokingly call me "Mason Madonna" for the next several years.

You can read more about Aziz in his 2020 Mathematically Gifted & Black profile.