Joseph Solomonovich Ponizovskii was born on July 19, 1928 in Saky, Crimea region, Ukraine. In 1944 Joseph Ponizovskii became a student of Leningrad State University and graduated the Department of Mathematics in 1950. In 1953 he defended the Ph.D. thesis in Algebra. His teachers were famous algebraists Dmitriy Fadeev and Evgenii Lyapin. For a long time from 1957 till 2005 Joseph Ponizovskii worked at the Department of Higher Mathematics of Russian State Hydrometeorological University. From 1957 he worked as a Associate Professor. In 1986 he defended the Doctor of Science thesis in Algebra. From 1989 he worked as a Professor.

Professor Stuart W. Margolis well said about contribution of Joseph Ponizovskii to the science in the letter at the site https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk: ``He made major contributions to the representation theory of finite semigroups. The well known Munn-Ponizovskii theory, proved almost simultaneously by Douglas Munn and Ponizovskii in the 1950s, is something like the fundamental theorem of the representation theory of finite semigroups. Representation theory of finite semigroups has undergone something of a renaissance over the past 15-20 years due to its appearing in a very natural way in a number of fields of mathematics: finite monoids of Lie type, algebraic combinatorics and other fields. In all of its applications the Munn-Ponizovskii theorem plays a central role''. J. S. Ponizovskii has published over 80 scientific articles issued in several well known mathematical journals (Soviet, Russian and International).

From 1983 to 1998 he was a member of a special edition of the special Mathematical Journal ``Semigroup Forum''. He also was a Managing Editor of the journal ``Modern Algebra'' and from 2002 a member of the editorial board of International Mathematical Journal ``Algebra and Discrete Mathematics''.

Joseph Ponizovskii was a participant of many algebraic conferences (Soviet, Russian and International). Joseph Ponizovskii was the repeated champion on gymnastics in Leningrad State University and a great lover of mountain tourism. He moved to Israel where his nearest relatives emigrated. We are sorry to have to inform you that our colleague Joseph Solomonovich Ponizovskii passed away on June, 2012 in Tel Aviv.

Joseph Solomonovich Ponizovskii had a bright personality, with a deep erudition in many fields. All of us will feel his absence. The memory of selfless work, human dignity and fairness, purposefulness and decency of Joseph Ponizovskii will remain forever in hearts of all relatives, friends, colleagues and students. Let him be remembered forever.

The Editorial Board
of Algebra and Discrete Mathematics Journal