Over the decades of history of CERM, we have interacted with, collaborated with, visited and been visited by, a number of friends who are no longer with us.

Here we honor those with whom we have had close relationships.

Walker Pierattelli WWMR2010 KVR Chary giving his presentation at the XIX ICMRBS in Florence, in the year 2000

We at CERM are deeply saddened by the sudden and untimely loss of Kandala Venkata Ramana Chary, a dear friend to many of us.
KVR Chary was a renowned expert in NMR spectroscopy, and over the last thirty-five years, has made tremendous contributions to several diverse areas in structural biology, molecular biophysics and biological chemistry.

Besides his research activity, he also made fundamental contributions in the development of research institutions and in science education, introducing young scientists towards fundamental research. Founding director of the IISER campus at Behrampur, he played a key role in the planning and establishment of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Hyderabad.
We had close links with him, and he visited CERM in several occasions, first under an Indo-Italian collaborative research project entitled "Structure and dynamics of calcium binding proteins", then in the frame of a Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme under the Seventh FP of the European Union. Within and beyond these collaborations we developed a true friendship, which was fueled by the enthusiasm that we were always pouring into our scientific discussions. We fondly remember our endless brainstormings on the intricacies of the interactions of calcium ions with proteins with multiple binding sites.

It is indeed a great loss not only for the Indian NMR community but also for his many friends around the world. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues at TIFR and IISER Berhampur.

2021 06 17 11 56                                                                              Angelo and his group                   

We at CERM mourn the premature decease of Dr. Angelo Di Leo. Di Leo (58 years old) passed away on Sunday 13 June 2021, after a long illness.

  CERM joins the International Magnetic Resonance community to remember and honor Dr. h.c. Tony W. Keller, who passed away on October 27, 2023, aged 86.

tony keller

Keller aa

Tony Keller was a true industrial pioneer, who dedicated over half a century of his life to Bruker, where he held key leadership roles until his retirement in 2010. Over those decades, he introduced groundbreaking NMR technologies, including the world's first multinuclear Fourier-transform NMR spectrometers. Many of us knew Tony Keller as a sincere partner at Bruker, a man devoted to advancing technology and ensuring the highest quality instrumentation for our community. His collaborative and innovation-driven approach led to other groundbreaking achievements, such as superconducting NMR magnets, digital spectrometers, cryogenically cooled probes, and the successful realization of the challenging 1.2 GHz ultra-high field NMR systems. These innovations have since become essential in structural biology research, metabolomics, pharmaceutical research, advanced materials and renewable energy research.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to our field, Dr. Keller received multiple honorary doctoral degrees titles, among which we fondly recall the Honorary Doctorate in Structural Biology from CERM, which was awarded to him in Florence on the occasion of the 2010 WWMR, a Joint EUROMAR 2010 and 17th ISMAR Conference.
We at CERM are proud of having developed a deep and sincere friendship with Tony over many decades. Our many discussions and bargaining with him over the conditions to purchase NMR instruments were always characterized by profound esteem and mutual trust. In fact, we have always seen Tony as colleague scientist and a friend in the first place. In those times, handshaking was all that was needed to seal a deal!

Tony's profound impact on the field of Magnetic Resonance has left an indelible mark, and his legacy will continue to shape the future of NMR technology and applications.

Shimon Vega                                                                                              

CERM joins the international magnetic resonance community in mourning the loss of Shimon Vega. 

It is simply impossible to frame all of his contributions to our field, from NMR of paramagnetic solids through quadrupolar NMR, 1H MAS line-narrowing and all the way to DNP. 
His work on fictitious-spin-1/2-operators formalism for treating the evolution of magnetization under the variety of NMR experiments has laid the grounds for a countless number of new experiments being devised (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijch.201410003). 
His contribution to solid-state NMR underlies almost all experiments that are now routine, and we surely wil continue to acknowledge his legacy again and again in the future. His papers are so clearly explained that they form the grounds for the teaching material in virtually every course in solid-state NMR all across the world.
Besides his scientific accomplishments, Shimon was a good friend, a wonderful host, and a gifted teacher. We wish to recall his proverbial intellectual depth through the words of Asher Schmidt and Lucio Frydman (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ijch.201410002). 
 
It goes without saying that the whole community will miss Shimon immensely.
  1. F. Ann Walker (1940 - 2022)
  2. Richard R. Ernst 14/8/1933 - 4/6/2021
  3. Jacques Vervoort 26/10/1954 - 19/7/2021