Two years ago, on March 21, 2020, our dear friend and Founder Robert Klapisch, left us.
The members of the Council and the Scientific Committee are immensely grateful to him for the values he has conveyed, for his vision and for his sharing of knowledge.
The Foundation, imbued with the magnificent heritage left by Robert, pursues more than ever its mission in compliance with its will.
Robert KLAPISCH joined the CNRS in 1956 after graduating from the Paris School of Physics and Chemistry. His dissertation work led by René Bernas (pupil of A.O. Nier, and pioneer of Mass Spectrometry in France) concerns the nucleosynthesis of the light elements Lithium Beryllium and Bore and the mystery of their survival when they should disappear by fusion. To do this, he will use CERN accelerators and participate in its Scientific Committees. He left the CNRS in 1981 when Herwig Schopper, CEO of CERN proposed to him to become Director of Research (1981-1987). Carlo Rubbia, the new DG (1989-1993), takes him as an adviser and is in charge of modernizing CERN’s communication. He organized the inauguration of the LEP in 1989 and led a Pavilion at the Seville Expo in 1992. At the end of Rubbia’s mandate, he joined the Energy Enhancer Project, an innovative approach to nuclear energy (1993-1997). In 2002, he was appointed by President Chirac to the Coppens Committee preparing the “Environmental Charter”, which is now part of the French Constitution. President of the French Association for the Advancement of Science (2000-2003), he proposes a North-South Dialog between scientists from Europe and those from less developed countries in Africa and the Middle East. In 2006, he created the Sharing Knowledge Foundation (SKF), which he chairs. President Sarkozy promoted him Officer of the Legion of Honor in 2007.
