Berrie Giebels passed away at 52

It is with great sadness that we learn of the death of former EGO Council president Berrie Giebels, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 52, after a year-long battle with cancer. From 2016 to 2022 he was first president and then vice-president of the EGO Council, the decision-making body of the EGO consortium, composed of members nominated by the funding institutions.

“I got to know Berrie Giebels, as a member of the EGO Council,” stated the Director of EGO, Massimo Carpinelli, “and appreciated his valuable contribution, both human and scientific, to the life of our community. We express our deepest condolences to Berrie’s friends and family, he will be greatly missed in the gravitational wave community as in all the others that he crossed in his brilliant career.”

“In his capacity as member and president of the EGO Council – said Virgo spokesperson Gianluca Gemme – Berrie Giebels was actively involved in important decisions regarding Virgo. I express my sincere personal condolences and those of the entire Virgo collaboration to his family and friends.”

Berrie Giebels completed his PhD in 1998 in Bordeaux on the Cherenkov experiment CELESTE. After 1 year at Collège de France and 3 years at SLAC, he joined the gamma astronomy group in LLR to work on H.E.S.S. and Fermi. In later years Berrie became the scientific director for astroparticle physics and cosmology at IN2P3/CNRS, where he was an unwavering supporter of CTA. He was instrumental in getting national funding for CTA in France. He served as Deputy Director of IN2P3 from 2021 until his death.

IN2P3 is collecting tributes from colleagues, which will be published on this page. To contribute send your message to memoriam.berrie-giebels@in2p3.fr.