Pierre Imbert (1934 – 2018) (15/02/18)

The Mössbauer Spectrometry community has lost one of its founders. Pierre Imbert passed away on Tuesday January 30th 2018 following a stroke.

In 1965, at the Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Saclay, Pierre Imbert founded a laboratory dedicated to the applications of the Mössbauer effect to basic problems in Solid State Physics (electronic structure and magnetism, dynamics of magnetic moments). He carried out a number of in-depth studies and, among his most significant results, may be mentioned the unveiling of the Kondo behaviour of Ytterbium impurities in gold, accomplished with his PhD student and friend Fernando Gonzalez-Jimenez (1941-2012), as well as the emission spectrometry experiments at very low temperature, resulting in a new « window » for the measurement of the dynamics of magnetic moments. Pierre Imbert was an enthusiastic researcher and of a convincing mentor. He was particularly modest always stressing the contribution of his collaborators to the work carried out together, and this along with his cheerfulness and good humour were salient features of his character. He has left a substantial scientific imprint and his passing is unanimously regretted.