From Gerhard Sun Dec 5 05:00:38 1999 From: Gerhard (Gerhard) Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 5:00:38 PST Subject: [IGSMAIL-2607] Martine Feissel Dr. h.c. Message-ID: ****************************************************************************** IGS Electronic Mail Sun Dec 5 5:00:38 PST 1999 Message Number 2607 ****************************************************************************** Author: Gerhard Beutler Subject: Martine Feissel Dr. h.c. Dear colleagues and friends, we would like to draw your attention to a few events having taken place in Bern, Switzerland during the weekend of December 3-5, 1999. The events are related "in a certain sense" and "to some extent" to fundamental astronomy, geodynamics, and to geodetic services: On December 4, 1999, on the occasion of the "Dies Academicus" of the University of Bern, Martine Feissel was presented the distinguished degree of a "Doctor philosophiae honoris causa, Dr. h.c" based on the following considerations ("laudatio"): " Martine Feissel quae semper maximo studio dedit operam, ut in rebus, quae ad fundamentalem quae dicitur scientiam astronomicam et ad virium motuumque terrarum doctrinam pertinent, investigatorum consuetudines et connexiones non modo inter gentes sed etiam inter disciplinas augerentur; quae illud institutum condidit, quod "Inernational Earth Rotation Service" (omnium gentium ad terrae rotationem observandam sedes) apellatur; quae in ea sede et condenda et per multos annos administranda optime est merita." For those of us having forgotten some of the Latin we learned at school the following "executive summary" may be helpful: "To Martine Feissel the great promotor of international and interdisciplinary collaboration in Fundamental Astronomy and Geodynamics in recognition of her merits when creating and directing the Central Bureau of the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS)." (Admittedly the latin original is much more elegant ...). During the ceremony the Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Prof. Adrian Pfiffner, briefly reviewed Martine Feissel's "Curriculum Vitae". He reminded the audience that Martine Feissel was deeply involved in the attempts in the 1970s and 1980s to exploit new and exciting observation techniques like VLBI and SLR through international collaboration in geodynamics and astronomy. This active and apparent engagement was one important reason why the responsibility to build up and run the Central Bureau of the IERS was in 1987 given to the Observatoire de Paris and that Martine Feissel became its first Director. She held this position till the end of the year 1997 when she decided to step back and leave this position to another colleague. The dean pointed out that through her scientific work and in particular through her activities as Director of the IERS Central Bureau, she contributed in a significant way to realize the vision of our generation of scientists in fundamental astronomy and geodynamics, viewing the celestial and terrestrial reference systems/frames and the transformation between them as one "intimately connected complex in Earth Sciences". He furthermore mentioned that, according to his understanding, the IERS was not really responsible for Earth Rotation but only for monitoring this phenomenon. He found it moreover remarkable that Martine Feissel used her power to add eight (leap-)seconds to our individual lifetimes (we hope that the faculty of theology will accept this view of facts). Prof. Adrian Pfiffner found it appropriate to conclude with Dr. h.c. Martine Feissel's life motto, which she owes to Charles Baudelaire: "Je laisse derriere moi, pour ma part sans regret, un monde ou l'action n'est pas la soeur du reve." (for those among us even forgetting the French we learned in School, this means: "I leave behind me, without regret, a world in which action is not the sister of the dream"). The weekend of December 3-5 in Bern was filled with many activities centered around the new Dr.h.c. We cannot comment all of them in this short report but we would like to note that Prof. Christian Reigber, Chairman of the IERS Directing Board, came to Bern to review the achievement of the IERS in the past decade and to develop his visions concerning the future of the IERS in a special Colloquium of the Physics and Astronomy Institutes of the University of Bern organized in honor of Martine Feissel. The presentation was complemented by Martine's personal perspective of her interdisciplinary field of science and her consistent views on international collaboration in our exciting field of science. We would like to conclude by congratulating Dr.h.c. Martine for her achievements in her scientific career and by expressing the hope that she will continue devoting her energy to the improvement of the international collaboration in our field of science. On behalf of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern Gerhard Beutler [Mailed From: beutler at ubeclu.unibe.ch (GERHARD BEUTLER)]