By Mohamed Al-Harby

AL-KHOBAR — Hailed as the greatest Saudi mathematician of his time, Ali Abdullah Al-Daffa was able to see through the graduation of thousands of students from top universities such as King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and Harvard University.

Daffa contributed to the development of the mathematics curricula in Saudi Arabia about 40 years ago. He enriched Arab libraries with 49 original books, most of which revolve around mathematics.

He was nicknamed by mathematicians in the US as the “King of Integration”, to the extent where at some math competitions, contestants could not use solutions previously presented by Daffa.

Al-Arabiya caught up with Daffa at his home in Al-Khobar.

Daffa completed more than 37 years of teaching before retiring in 2008. He started with his childhood and spoke about how his mother shaped his success.

“My mother used to always tell me that if I found a math problem difficult, I should always go back to her and ask,” Daffa said.

“I remember how my mother struggled for 70 years to provide a good living for us,” he said.

Daffa spoke about his experience with King Saud before his retirement, where the King shook his hand with great pride and expressed how proud the country was of him.

Although Daffa was offered a position as the head of the mathematics and sciences department at KFUPM, he insisted on being a professor and continuing to teach.

Daffa graduated from the University of Texas in 1967 and obtained a PhD from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He later returned to Saudi Arabia and worked at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals as an assistant professor.

Daffa was appointed president of the Union of Arab Mathematicians and Physicists twice. He contributed to the development of the mathematics curricula in Saudi Arabia by using simple solving methods to facilitate the study of this field.

The mathematician had great love for his students whom he taught at KFUPM, King Saud University and Harvard, where he continued his education throughout his career. — Al-Arabiya English