Gilles Sauvage (1939-2010)
Gilles Sauvage, a physicist from LAPP-Annecy working with ATLAS, passed away on 21 April 2010.
Gilles Sauvage was deeply involved in many generations of experiments at CERN as he followed the evolution of the field at the energy forefront. He started with the LAL-Orsay group in the WA2 Hyperon experiment at the SPS West Area, where he worked from 1976 to 1979. With the same group he was then a founding member of the UA2 Collaboration at the SPS p-pbar Collider, in which he was active throughout the duration of the experiment. He then moved to LAPP-Annecy in 1986 and joined first the L3 group at LEP, making important contributions to the construction, calibration, installation and commissioning of the BGO crystal calorimeter. Later, in the mid-1990s, Gilles joined ATLAS and led the LAPP-Annecy group through the intense period of the construction of one third of the ATLAS LAr barrel electromagnetic calorimeter modules at LAPP, and followed hands-on its integration and installation at CERN. He retired in 2006, but his passion for physics motivated him to remain fully active until the last day.
Gilles was an exceptional experimentalist, who set very high standards of how to work with great human qualities in a large collaboration. He always sought the most elegant technical and scientific solutions, not accepting any easy short-cuts. His style? We never saw him acting as a big boss, but rather motivating junior and senior colleagues by setting the example of working hard on the floor over many years.
Gilles had other passions: mountains, flowers, birds and music. It was always a pleasure and a privilege to listen to him and profit from his great culture. Gilles’ good mood will remain in our memories forever. Our thoughts and sympathy go to his family.
His friends and colleagues
