Frans Verbeure (1942 - 2003)

On 8 June Frans Verbeure, full professor at the University of Antwerpen and Head of the Particle Physics group, passed away after a long illness. Born on 6 February 1942, Verbeure started his research career in the early sixties, under de leadership of Prof. Fernand Grard, at the "Laboratoire des Hautes Energies" in Brussels, a laboratory funded by the Belgian National Science Foundation. His research activity initially centered around the vigorous bubble chamber physics programme which had started in Saclay and continued at CERN. When the Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen (UIA) was created in 1972, he became the youngest professor in the Physics Department, and remained there until his untimely death. Recognizing the importance of collaboration on a national, as well as international level, Verbeure associated his research group closely with the other experimental particle physics groups at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). This collaboration has remained very intense till today. In the early eighties, under his leadership, the UIA group expanded its activity from bubble chamber experiments to "hybrid" experiments. When the time of the bubble chambers was over, the group took part in the Belgian effort in DELPHI at LEP and contributed to the sub-detector construction and physics analyses. Over the last 8 years, his efforts were directed towards the active participation of his group in the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

His talents as an efficient administrator were recognized early in his career, and he took on several important duties as Head of the Physics Department, Dean of the Science Faculty, president of the University Research Council and Vice-Rector of the UIA. He was active member of the Belgian Federal Council for Research Policy and of the Flemish Interuniversity Council.
For 2 years he became Dean of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and, last but not least, was a member of the Belgian delegation in the CERN Council and Committee of Council. In all these, his actions were inspired by a great sense of duty and service to the community.
In spite of all his other duties, Frans Verbeure never lost his excitement for particle physics. In his role as permanent secretary of the International Symposia on Multiparticle Dynamics (ISMD), he ensured the continuing success of this series of conferences which are devoted to all aspects of particle production, a field to which he devoted a major part of his research.
Frans Verbeure was a man of many talents. As a scientist he always had a clear grasp of the problems at hand, and of the most efficient way to solve them. He was admired and respected by his collaborators and students. He will be remembered as an extremely kind and helpful colleague and friend, full of joy, optimism and activity. His love of life and his positive attitude were infectious to all those who had the privilege to know him.
His friendly advice and the inspiring discussions with him will be missed.

His colleagues and friends