"It is with great sadness that I forward to you the news of the passing of our dear colleague Jacques Astier who passed away yesterday, 20 May 2012. Jacques Astier was the President of the Council from 1968 - 1985. Congresses held during Jacques' tenure as President were those at Leningrad, Prague, London, Cagliari, Sao Paolo, Warsaw, Toronto and Cannes. As you know, in 2010 Jacques was a most worthy recipient of the IMPC Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his enormous contributions to minerals processing.
On behalf of the international Minerals Processing community I wish to convey to Madame Astier and her family our deepest sympathy at this time. We also celebrate the wonderful contribution which Jacques made to the world of Minerals Processing during his life. We mourn the passing of a great man and, more importantly, a wonderfully warm and kind friend."
Jacques Astier graduated in 1948 from L´École Centrale in Paris, one of the most famous of the Grande’s Écoles in France. He was a director at L´Institut de Recherche de la Sidérurgie Française, IRSID. From 1988 he was an independent consultant to corporations and institutions in metallurgy, iron ore and techno-economic matters. He also served as elected administrator (Administreur élu) of La Société de L´Industrie Minérale, SIM from 1983 to 1989 . He was the president of the section for mineral processing ( La section de valorisation) of SIM for the period 1963 to 1968 and then became honorary president of the section. He received the section medal in 2002. He has also been Professor at L´Ecole Nationale Supérieur des Mines de Paris, another of the famous Grandes Écoles of France.
The photograph below was taken at the 2008 IMPC in Beijing:
I invite all of you who knew or met Prof. Astier to submit your appreciations of his life and work below.
Received by email:
ReplyDeleteMonsieur Siderurgie, as our dear Prof.Astier was known in Brazil in the 70´s, was a main driver to the establishment of the Brazilian Iron and Steel Institute in a moment that Brasil was building one of the world´s largest steel industry. Also, via his encouragement, a very deep and fruitful cooperation between Brazilian research and academic institutions on iron and steel making and ore processing and their French counterpart was achieved.
Jacques , not only a remarkable ingenieur , but an extremely charming person, throughout his many visits to Brasil convinced Profs. Joaquim Maia, in Ouro Preto,and Paulo Abib, in S.Paulo, to submit the Brazilian candidacy to IMPC that was finally held in São Paulo in 1977, under Jacques´ presidency.
To Madame Astier, who I had the honor of getting introduced during one of the Jacques´s visits to COPPE/UFRJ, in Rio de Janeiro, where I was an Assistant Professor at the time, my sincere condolences.
Prof. Roberto Villas-Bôas, CETEM, Brazil
It was with heartfelt sadness that we learned of Astier's passing. On behalf of BGRIMM, Prof. Sun Chuanyao and myself, I wish to exress our deepest sympathy to Madame Astier and her family.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Han Long
VP International Business, BGRIMM, China