Discovery and science

Richard Bligny, a researcher at the Cellular and Plant Physiology Laboratory (UGA, CEA, CNRS, INRAE), passed away this weekend. It is to Richard that we owe the laboratory chalet, and it was Richard who was the director of the Lautaret Alpine station, a structure created between 2002 and 2005, prior to recognition by the CNRS and the creation of the joint service unit Joseph Fourier Alpine Station, which became The jardin du Lautaret. He was a great mountaineer and scientist, particularly interested in deciphering the molecular mechanisms at the heart of alpine plants that enable them to live in conditions of intense stress, and very open to questions of ecology. Richard was a man of great culture, an honest man as we would have understood it in the 17th century. Richard was a close friend of Philippe, Rolland, Serge, Christophe, Pascal, myself*... He lived through the difficult years when Lautaret was divided into two camps, the garden on one side grouped around Fort Mirande and the lab chalet as a bastion of research. Richard lived life at a hundred miles an hour, both literally and figuratively. He dodged avalanches and was always radiant with his big salt-and-pepper beard, all smiles, a magnificent grandfather. The jardin du Lautaret, deeply saddened, offers its most sincere condolences to his large family and all his loved ones.