****************************************************************************** dorismail 07-Feb-2019 16:03:32 Message No 1166 ****************************************************************************** Author: Frank Lemoine Subject: Passing of Richard Biancale Dear colleagues. It is with profound sadness that we must announce to you the passing our colleague, Dr. Richard Biancale, geodesist, recently retired from the CNES in September 2018, and most recently working at the GFZ (Oberpfaffenhofen) with Dr. Frank Flechtner on GRACE Follow-On. We were informed of his death on Monday February 4, 2019 from a heart attack while skiing in the Alps. Richard had a long and distinguished career in Space Geodesy. He received his Ph.D. in 1978 from the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris (France) while working under Professor Christoph Reigber at the Technical University of Munich (Germany). He worked as a research scientist at the University of Sao Paulo, at the DGFI (Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut) in Munich (Germany), and at CERGA (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches en Géodynamique et Astronométrie) Grasse (France), before joining the French Space Agency, the CNES (Toulouse, France) in 1982 as a scientific engineer. Under the direction of Michel Lefebvre, one of his first jobs at the CNES was to define the DORIS tracking system for the TOPEX/Poseidon mission. Since 1984 he was very involved in the French-German cooperation on gravity field modeling, first with the GRIM models, and then with the EIGEN models after the launches of CHAMP and GRACE. He served as the scientific manager of the Stella laser geodetic satellite, launched in 1993.Under the direction of Dr. Georges Balmino, he became chief of the "Terrestrial and Planetary Geodetic Department" of the CNES in 1992. He received his “Habilitation” in 2006 and starting in 2008 served as Executive Director of the Groupe de Recherche de Géodésie Spatiale (GRGS), a French national group that gathers 120 researchers from organizations involved in Space Geodesy studies. Over the course of his career he has supervised and inspired more than a dozen Ph.D students and served as a mentor to many colleagues and young scientists. Understanding the importance of training the next generation of scientists in satellite geodesy, he has taught geodesy for over 25 years at engineer schools (e.g. ENSG [Ecole de la Géomatique/National School of Geographic Sciences], ENSTA [Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées]), at universities (e.g. Paris VI), and short training courses (e.g. GRGS Summer School). Throughout his career he has worked assiduously to improve the quality of geodetic data, and to advance the science obtained from these data. He was a strong proponent of the need for improving the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF), supporting the contributions to the IDS, IGS, ILRS, IVS and IERS.He has participated and led national and international proposals for new innovative space missions that would continue to advance the contribution of geodesy to science and society.Most recently, before and after his retirement from CNES, he worked to advance the proposal for the Tahiti Geodetic Observatory, a fundamental station including VLBI, SLR, GNSS and DORIS whose geographic location would be of prime importance to the ITRF and to the mm-level goals of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) in the next decade. As many of his colleagues noticed, Richard Biancale had a joie de vivre. He was charming, free, passionate and cheerful man who embraced life whether it was in a fine restaurant after a scientific meeting, sailing around the Mediterranean or across the Atlantic on his catamaran, "RaphyO^2", or visiting interesting cultural or natural locales.As his colleagues, we were all privileged to enjoy his friendship. We lament this tragic loss. To his family, including wife, Irmtraud, and four children, Raphaël, Philipp, Johannes & Joselyne, we extend our deepest sympathy and most heartfelt condolences. Sincerely, Frank Lemoine (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.A) Laurent Soudarin (Collecte Localisation Satellites, Ramonvile-Saint Agne, FRANCE) Jean-Michel Lemoine & Pascale Ferrage (Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales, Toulouse, FRANCE) Jean-Paul Boy (EOST, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, FRANCE)