It is with deepest sadness to announce the passing of Professor István Dézsi, emeritus professor of the Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest, Doctor of the Physical Sciences at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, foreign member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and Arts. He passed away on 17 January 2022 after short illness at the age of 88 and the memorial service was held on 10 February with the participation of the Hungarian Mössbauer community. István graduated in chemistry from the Kossuth Lajos University in Debrecen in 1957. He prepared the radioactive source for and participated in the very first experiment when the Mössbauer effect was reproduced in a Budapest laboratory in November 1960. Later he applied Mössbauer spectroscopy to investigate various problems in the field of both chemistry and physics as well as in other disciplines. The structure of solutions and coordination complexes, phase transitions, relaxation phenomena, electron structure studies, texture effects, corrosion problems and many others belonged to his field of interest. Although he extended the experimental tools of his Budapest laboratory with positron annihilation by running life-time and angular correlation spectrometers and he also used some other techniques including those for pion chemistry, his focus stayed always with Mössbauer spectroscopy the international community of which he was a distinguished and respected member. He had collaborations with numerous Mössbauer laboratories worldwide, however his most decisive contacts were those with the Fachbereich Werkstoffwissenschaften, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium where he stayed in 1973, 1985–1990 and 1977–1978, 1980–1982, respectively. In Saarbrücken he started with the determination of the charge states and magnetic interactions in ferroelectrics, in Leuven with studying ion implanted systems and the growth of ultrathin layers, this latter subject being in the focus of his interest from 1977 irrespective of the location of his activity.
On Wednesday April 29, 2020 Yasuhiro Yamada unexpectedly passed away in the age of only 61, due to an acute bone marrow cancer. He was full of plans for new projects. All his friends and colleagues are deeply shocked. Yasuhiro was active IBAME member since 2013, representing the chemists in the Japanese Mössbauer Community. OUr deepest thoughts are with his family and friends.
On Saturday November 9, 2019 Alfred (Ali) Xaver Trautwein passed away after a long severe disease, which he suffered with admirable fortitude. Born 1940 in Neu-Ulm he studied at TU München, became assistant in the group of Ulrich Gonser, where he built up a Mössbauer laboratory, before he got a call from the University zu Lübeck. There he worked as full professor for 24 years mainly in the field of biochemistry. He was dean and rector before he retired in 2007. He wrote several books (e.g. Mössbauer Spectroscopy in Transition Metal Chemistry together with Gütlich und Link) and nearly 500 papers. From 1995 to 2002 he was representative of Germany in IBAME. In 2015 he was the first to get the IBAME Fellow Award. Also ravaged by disease he did not stop to work. He still came to the Mössbauer conferences to present new results. All who got in contact with him will never forget his friendly and winsome nature. With Ali Mössbauer spectroscopy has lost a great scientist.
On Saturday March 27 Werner Keune passed away with age of 81. In spite of his long lasting severe illness he was until last in close contact with his colleagues at the university. The Mössbauer community has lost an excellent scientist and a very friendly and open-minded colleague. Our thoughts are with his family. A biographic sketch can be found here: https://www.mossbauer.info/biokeune.html
George Filoti died on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at age 79. He was a senior researcher rank 1 at the National Institute of Materials Physics, Bucharest-Magurele, Romania and had a prestigious didactic activity as Professor associated to the Doctoral School of Physics from University of Bucharest. His activity was connected to delocalization electron phenomena and local structure and interactions in various materials (intermetallics, alloys, oxides, molecular crystals, co-ordination compounds - e.g. chelates -, iron compounds with structures similar to high Tc superconductors, frustrated spin systems) most of them being compounds containing mixed-valence elements. A very fine observer of the details, he managed to explain complicated electronic mechanisms based on a rigorous analysis of the Mӧssbauer data and by designing particular compositions and preparation routes as well as by using complementary investigation tools. He has been involved in numerous international collaborations in this field, his activity being rewarded with distinctions, diplomas and awards obtained at national and international events. George Filoti was for many years the Romanian representative in IBAME. He was awarded the IBAME Fellow status in 2017 in recognition of his distinguished scientific achievements. He was also awarded the Romanian Academy Prize for Physics for the best papers in Solid State Physics for the year 1994 and was honored by the Romanian Order “For Merit” Officer Degree in 2000. Professor Dr. George Filoti has dedicated his life to the science and to the institute in which he has worked throughout his career, being at the same time a promoter of new research directions in the field of magnetism and local electronic phenomena and a skills trainer. He has guided many researchers and PhD students, leaving behind a significant scientific contribution. He was working in the field of Mӧssbasuer spectroscopy since 1964. He coordinated the Gamma Nuclear Resonance Group since 1967, as a young and enthusiastic group focused on the study of local magnetic interactions and electronic delocalization phenomena in various systems by using Mӧssbasuer spectroscopy and complementary techniques. His PhD students and coworkers remember him as an altruistic man, always ready to offer good advice, with a complex vision not only on Physics but on a large area of knowledge and on society in general. He was a very honest person as human being and as scientist as well. All the friends, collaborators and the people who knew him, gratefully commemorate his memory and deeply regret the departure of us, too early.
On June 7, 2018 Prof. Dr. hab. Jan Suwalski passed away at age of 89. He was Professor emeritus of the National Centre for Nuclear Research at ´Swierk. Prof. Suwalski was one of the pioneers of Mössbauer spectroscopy technique in Poland.
Örn Helgason died on Monday August 19, 2019. Örn was Professor in The University of Iceland from 1969 until retirement in 2008 when he was granted the title of Emeritus Professor.
Örn was an active, enthusiastic and scholarly practitioner of Mössbauer spectroscopy. He considered the natural environment of Iceland as a giant geophysical laboratory and much of his research involved the application of Mössbauer spectroscopy to the study of mineral-related materials and the natural processes which governed their behaviour. He was committed to high quality work and assiduous in detail. His analysis of data was rigorous.
Born in Berlin, Germany, Enver Murad received his university degree in Mineralogy at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, in 1967; Doctor degrees in philosophiae naturalis, in 1970, from the Universität Frankfurt and Doctor rerum naturalium habilitation, in 1986, from the Technische Universität München. In 1970, he was engaged as a Research Fellow, at the Mineralogical Institute, Universität Tübingen; from 1975 to 1993 and as Research Fellow, at the Soil Science Department, Technische Universität München; from January to May 1983, he worked at the Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., U.S.A., as Visiting Assistant Professor. From 1993 to 2006, he directed the Department of Geological Services, Economic Geology and Soil Protection, at the Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt [Bavarian Environment Agency – formerly (before August 2005) known as the Bavarian State Geological Survey], at which he was Emeritus Scientist from July 2006 to December 2007. He then retired.
Dr. Mira Ristić was born on January the 4th 1959. in small place near Imotski in Dalmatia, Croatia. She completed high-school (gymnasium) in Imotski and attended the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology at the University of Zagreb. Upon graduation Mira was for some time teaching assistant in thermodynamics, then she employed at the Ruđer Bošković Institute. In this Institute she started to work on the problem of denitration of simulated radioactive waste liquids followed with the investigation of glasses for immobilization of radioactive wastes. After she obtained MSc and PhD degrees her primary scientific interest was chemistry of metal oxides. Mira was creative scientist and published about 150 scientific articles. In her research she used different spectroscopic, electron-microscopic and structural methods with specific emphasize on capabilities of Mössbauer spectroscopy in metal oxide chemistry. She started with organization of the first Mediterranean Conference on the Applications of the Mössbauer Effect (MECAME 2015) in Zadar (Croatia) in the honour to Svetozar Musić. The second MECAME 2016 was organized in Cavtat (Croatia) in the honour of Philipp Gütlich. The third MECAME 2017 was organized in Jerusalem (Israel) in the honour of Rivka Bauminger and Rolfe Herber. The fourth MECAME 2018 was organizes in Zadar (Croatia) in the honour of Frank Berry and the fifth MECAME-GFSM 2019 was organized in Montpellier (France) in the honour of Jean-Claude Jumas. The aims of these conferences are to establish better relationships between Mössbauer spectroscopist in Mediterranean countries and to give honour to the scientists which gave special contribution to the development of Mössbauer spectroscopy in their own countries as well as internationally. Many thanks to Mira that now MECAME conferences became tradition. Mira was also an excellent person. She was hard worker, responsible and she never complained. In many occasions she was also saying that society must benefit from science. Mira was socially sensitive person and always ready to help others. Suddenly, on the April 19th this year, her heart stopped beating. We shall always remember Mira! Svetozar Music