Olivier Le Fèvre died on 25 June 2020 at the age of 59. Olivier had been courageously and lucidly battling a brain tumour for two and a half years.
Olivier Le Fèvre was a pioneer and passionate promoter of multi-object spectroscopy on the ground and in space, and one of the founding fathers of observational cosmology based on large-scale galaxy surveys.
After completing his PhD in Toulouse and Meudon, Olivier Le Fèvre began his career as a resident astronomer at the Canada-France-Hawaii Observatory (CFH) on the Big Island of Hawaii. It was at the CFH that, with French and Canadian colleagues, he initiated a major survey of galaxies (the Canada-France Redshift Survey) using the MOS-SIS multi-object spectrograph. The large-scale spectroscopic surveys of galaxies that he pioneered made him internationally renowned. Returning to France in 1994, he set about designing and building a multi-object spectrograph (VIMOS) for the Very Large Telescope (VLT), then under construction in Chile. With this instrument, for which he was the principal investigator, Olivier Le Fèvre began fifteen years of major cosmological surveys in the early 2000s as part of a number of international collaborations (VVDS, VUDS, VIPERS, zCOSMOS, etc.), training generations of students, researchers and engineers around the world in his wake. When a thousand galaxies were no longer enough, he observed ten thousand; when ten thousand were no longer enough, he observed a hundred thousand. He did the same to go as far back in time as possible, until he reached the youngest galaxies at the very edge of the Universe. Olivier Le Fèvre and his colleagues have profoundly altered our understanding of the evolution of galaxies and how they are assembled within the great structures of the Universe. One of the hallmarks of his scientific approach was his unwavering commitment to observations and their data. He relied solely on their ultimate verdict and firmly rejected any attempt to bias them under any pretext. The excellence of his scientific work earned him numerous awards and distinctions. He was one of the most highly cited French astronomers.
An amateur astronomer before turning professional, astronomy and sky observation were his passion. With his tireless energy, Olivier Le Fèvre never ceased to propose new instrumental and observational projects on the largest telescopes on the ground and in space. He played a decisive role in the selection of the European Space Agency's Euclid mission, as well as in the development of instruments for NASA's JWST mission and the Japanese Subaru telescope in Hawaii. He will not have been able to marvel at the 30 million spectra that the Euclid mission will begin to accumulate over the next 2 years, or at the most distant galaxies that the JWST will discover.
"Olivier Le Fèvre was director of the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) between 2004 and 2011, and in 2008 managed its move into a new building of the highest international standard. He has been a tireless advocate for astronomy and astrophysics in national, European and international bodies and agencies. He has been a member of countless scientific and strategic committees, including the Council of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Olivier Le Fèvre always preferred to put his energy into defending local and national prestige, rather than the prestige of the directorships of major European institutes that were offered to him. He was resolutely attached to the French art of living and to the Marseilles region, which he joined in 1997 and has never left since. He was in love with this region, which he explored by bicycle inland and by windsurfer from the sea.
Our community has lost a great scientist and one of its most ardent defenders. Our condolences and sympathy go to his family and his two daughters Stéphanie and Luana.
Olivier Le Fèvre's funeral will take place on Monday morning 29 June 2020.
Entombment and final tribute: 10am to 10.30am, Chambre funéraire du Beausset, 125 avenue du Souvenir Français, 83330 Le Beausset. (on google maps)
Religious ceremony: 11 a.m. at the Saint-Anne du Castellet chapel, 458 chemin de La Chapelle - 83330 Sainte-Anne-du-Castellet (on Google maps).
Refreshments will be served after the religious ceremony at Olivier's home, 608 avenue du Mistral - Le Brulat, 83330 Le Castellet (on google maps).
The body will be cremated in the privacy of the family. His ashes will be scattered at sea.