Gilles Kahn was the Chief Executive Officer of INRIA and INRIA's representative on ERCIM's board of directors when he passed away in February 2006. His friends and colleagues met on 12 January 2007 in Paris to commemorate his friendship and his scientific leadership.
Speakers at the colloquium included Samson Abramsky (University of Oxford), Nicholas Ayache (INRIA), Gérard Berry (Esterel Technologies), Luca Cardelli (Microsoft Research, Cambridge), Gérard Huet (INRIA), Paul Klint (CWI), Pierre-Louis Lions (College of France), David Macqueen (University of Chicago), Robin Milner (University of Cambridge and École polytechnique), Gordon Plotkin (University of Edinburgh), Erik Sandewall (Linköping University), Laurent Théry (INRIA), and Jean Vuillemin (INRIA and École Normale Supérieure).
The first computer scientist to be elected to the French Academy of Science, a relentless promoter of science and supporter of ERCIM, Gilles Kahn was involved in many partnerships with the most prestigious organisations in the world. He was a great man of science.
He was and will remain, for those that were close to him, a warm and charismatic man whose simplicity and human qualities will remain in their memories and in their hearts.
