Our meetings with Lotfi Zadeh'

Vilem: i met prof. zadeh for the first time, in prague in 1982, at the occasion of the coling '82 international conference. i already knew his papers and had begun to write my first book (novak, v., fuzzy sets and their applications, sntl, praha, 1986 and 1990 (in czech). the english revision was published by adam hilger, bristol, 1989). since he was the greatest authority, i was very excited and waited during registration for the moment of his arrival to be able to see him. when i saw this modest man, i realized how great a person he was. but we became acquainted only later, after his plenary lecture. first of all, i noticed that while the conference hall was only half full, many people came before lotfi's talk just to hear him.