Q-rook monoid algebras, Hecke algebras, and Schur–Weyl duality

When we were at the beginnings of our careers Sergei's support helped us to believe in our work. He generously encouraged us to publish our results on Brauer and Birman–Murakami–Wenzl algebras, results which had in part, or possibly in total, been obtained earlier by Sergei himself. He remains a great inspiration for us, both mathematically and in our memory of his kindness, modesty, generosity, and encouragement to the younger generation.