Archive for obituary
les mille et une vie de Marjane Satrapi [cover]
Posted in Books, pictures with tags BD, comics, cover, French culture, Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Libé, Liberation, Marjane Satrapi, obituary, Persepolis, Résistance, theocracy, Woman Life Liberty on June 22, 2026 by xi'an
Paul Deheuvels (1948-2026)
Posted in Books, Mountains, University life with tags Bayesian Choice, Bayesian statistics, Book, bouldering, Bourg-la-Reine, climatosceptic, climbing accident, Club de l'Horloge, Economica, empirical process, Fontainebleau, functional estimation, Jussieu, Monsanto, obituary, Paris, Paris 6, Paul Deheuvels, Que sais-je?, The Bayesian Choice, thumb, transgenic corn, UMPC, Université Pierre et Marie Curie on February 5, 2026 by xi'an
I just learned that Paul Deheuvels died last week. He was head of the statistics department at Université Pierre & Marie Curie when I was a lecturer there (1987-1992). And a professor of statistics and probability there for his entire career, from 1974 to 2013. While we were working on completely different topics, and had divergent political views, we kept an amicable connection throughout the years, as we were living close enough to meet once in a while at the local farmers’ market and have a quick chat. When I was considering my options for pursuing a PhD, while writing a Master thesis on commutative Lie algebras with his father, René Deheuvels, he was one of the people who offered to supervise me (on a topic related with empirical processes, which were his forte). Later, he suggested I wrote a very short introduction to Bayesian statistics in the Que sais-je? collection (where he published three books) and, when my manuscript was found too theoretical, he proposed to publish an expanded version in the Economica collection, which ended up being the French version of The Bayesian Choice. I also remember a very kind email he sent me while I was recovering from my climbing accident, in 2013, as a fellow climber. (For a long while, he would drive to Fontainebleau once or twice a week for bouldering.) As alluded (to) above, Deheuvels’ political views were very conservative, with a proximity to the far-right Club de l’Horloge and a mix of vieille France traditionalism and libertarianism positions. For sure, he never was shy from embarking in controversies, from defending Allègre’s climato-scepticism to backing Séralini’s controversial study on the cancerogenic effects of Mosanto’s transgenic maize.
death of a benefactor of humanity (Etienne-Emile Baulieu, 1926-2025)
Posted in Kids, pictures, University life with tags abortion pills, abortion rights, Faculté de Médecine de Bicêtre, France, French Academy of Science, Mifepristone, National Academy of Sciences, obituary, Paris, reproductive rights, Roe v. Wade, RU-486 on June 7, 2025 by xi'an
Kazuo Iwamura (1939-2024)
Posted in Books, Kids with tags Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, children books, Japan, Japanese literature, Kazuo Iwamura, kids, L’École des loisirs, mice, obituary, Tokyo, translation, 岩村 和朗 on January 30, 2025 by xi'an
David Lodge (1935-2025)
Posted in Books, Travel, University life with tags academia, Birmingham, Campus Trilogy, conferences, David Lodge, Edgbaston, France, Margaret Thatcher, obituary, University of Warwick, Warwickshire, West Midlands on January 15, 2025 by xi'an
Found upon my return from India that British and Birmingham writer David Lodge had passed away. While I cannot trace all the novels of his’ I read, and while I have a false memory of him being the author of a dystopia on an isolationist England returning to postcard pastoral England (namely, Julian Barnes’ England England!), I clearly remember the fun in reading his (Rummidge) campus trilogy, a fictional Midlands campus that sounded like a mix between the University of Birmingham and the Warwick campus. I vaguely remember enjoying Changing Places, and the barbs on US and UK academic lives, while Small World, focussing on the excesses of 1970’s and 1980’s international academic conferences, was both to the point and hilarious. The third volume, Nice Work, is much less of a satire of academic life, as it focus on a couple of characters, gradually switching opinions about the other (character and community). Plus attacking Thatcherism on the side. Since I read these books in the 1990’s. they may have aged or lost their appeal (esp. the trick at the centre of Nice Work), but they were definitely enjoyable at the time.
