On May 15th, 2007 Prof. Dr. Em. Albert Cardon left us, after a long fight against his disease. It is with deep regret, but at the same time with immense gratitude for all the indelible memories that we look back upon the life of our jovial but hard working colleague Albert.

Throughout the world Albert was a well known authority, in the field of mechanics of materials. Viscoelasticity and experimental mechanics, mostly related to composite material systems, were his favourite subjects. For most of us, he was equally known as a very active member of the editorial board of different international scientific journals, as well as council member and/or president of many societies, among which the European Association of Experimental Mechanics (EURASEM) and the European Society for Composite Materials (ESCM). He was organizer and/or co-organizer of many national and international workshops and conferences, such as “his” regular conferences on “Durability of Composite Systems”, and the successful “10th European Conference on Composite Materials” in 2002 in Bruges, Belgium. He was a popular, but at the same time much respected guest, for a few days to several months, at numerous renowned institutes and universities all over the world.

Albert was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on July 21st, 1938 where he spent both his childhood and his youth. In 1959 he obtained his master’s degree in mathematics at the “Université Libre de Bruxelles”. In 1971 he obtained his doctorate, which treated the non-linear vibration behaviour of thin plates. Before, he studied the use of photo elasticity for experimental stress analysis of constructions. In 1976 he was nominated full professor at the Engineering Faculty of the Free University of Brussels (VUB). Numerous are the students who followed his courses on mechanics of materials, continuum mechanics, experimental mechanics and theory of plates and shells, in which his playing with indices of stress and strain tensors became famous.

Albert was the driving force of the COSARGUB research group, one of the first research groups on composite materials within a Belgian university. Until his retirement September 2003 he was head of the department of “Mechanics of Materials and Constructions (MeMC)”.

Albert died at the age of 68. He is survived by his wife Nelly and his two children Philippe and Françoise.

prof. Danny Van Hemelrijck                                                                 Prof. Joris Degrieck
Free University of Brussels (VUB), Belgium                                             Ghent University, Belgium

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