Yousef Alavi (March 19, 1928 – May 21, 2013)[1] was an Iranian born American mathematician who specialized in combinatorics and graph theory.
[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.
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.
[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.