In memory of our friend and colleague Didier BOURLÈS
Didier Bourlès has left us, too quickly and too soon. This is a difficult time for CEREGE, with the loss of a friend and colleague.
An exceptional teacher and scholar, he brought the contagious enthusiasm that we know so well to his teaching, his research and even his administrative responsibilities. He had a passion for teaching and his students returned that passion, sometimes literally applauding his lectures.
Above all, he was an exceptional and brilliant researcher, with a remarkable career trajectory that took him from physics to the geosciences. In the early days, he carried out the first measurements of 10 Use a low-energy accelerator, working with the CSNSM group at the Tandetron in Gif sur Yvette, and over time became a national and world leader in the analysis of cosmogenic nuclides.
He was recruited to CNRS as a researcher at CSNSM in Orsay in 1982. After completing his ′′ state thesis ′′ in 1988, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT. In 1994 he was awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal and in 1998 he was recruited to a professorship at the university which included an appointment at CEREGE.
Piece by piece, he developed the ASTER project at CEREGE, creating an outstanding laboratory that has developed innovative and fruitful collaborations across France and the world. As head of the National Cosmogenic Nuclide Laboratory (LN2C, comprising the ASTER AMS facility and the ASCHIM preparation laboratory), he continued his work on innovative applications of cosmogenic nuclides in the geosciences while training a generation of students who now form a research network in a variety of fields including sedimentology, tectonics, palaeoclimatology and anthropology.
To ensure that ASTER would maintain its position at the forefront of research even after his retirement in 2018, he convinced the CNRS and local and regional governments to fund a new analytical line for 26 Al, which is now installed at ASTER.
His energy, curiosity and passion made him the driving force behind French geochemistry and the use of cosmogenic nuclides for quantitative studies of the dynamics of terrestrial processes, natural hazards and climate. He had a flair for selecting successful projects that led to scientific innovations. His energy and taste for research made him a pioneer in responding to the major challenges posed by cosmogenic research.
His departure is a real loss for the geoscientific community. Didier was a remarkable researcher, passionate about science, rigorous in his work, convinced of the importance of public research and convincing in the presentation of his research. As well as losing an emblematic figure, CEREGE has lost one of its most effective and successful scientists. ASTER and CEREGE will not resonate in the same way. His early departure will not allow the full expression of his art during his retirement, which he had intended to devote fully to his research.
Nevertheless, his legacy is that his students and colleagues now form a ′′ cosmo school'-the Didier Bourlès School-which will take up the torch that was passed to them. His closest colleagues, now greatly saddened, will honour him by continuing to build on his work.
Didier made his mark in science, but not only there. We will remember him as a charismatic colleague, but also as an enthusiastic, kind and supportive friend. Our laboratory and our community have suffered a great loss.