14 May 1932 – 18 January 2024
It is the sad duty of IFIP TC6 (Communication Systems) to inform the community that Professor Dr André Danthine passed away on 18 January 2024. We are deeply saddened by his loss.
André was Professor Emeritus of the University of Liège (ULiège), Belgium. He graduated as an electromechanical engineer from ULiège in 1959 and obtained a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1961. After a few years working in industry, he began his academic career in 1967 at ULiège, holding the chair in automatic control. After witnessing the first public US Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) demonstration in 1972, he launched the Research Unit in Networking (RUN) at ULiège, now headed by Professors Guy Leduc, Laurent Mathy and Benoit Donnet, and André connected with Internet pioneers, Louis Pouzin, Vint Cerf and Bob Metcalfe, among others. In 1978 he organised the first conference on Computer Network Protocols, which triggered in 1981 the IFIP WG 6.1 conference on Protocol Specification, Testing and Verification (PSTV). In 1983, he coordinated one of 13 European projects of the first ESPRIT research program.
André was awarded the “Dr. Honoris Causa” of the University of Kent, UK in 1991 and of the Université Paul Sabatier de Toulouse, France, in 1996. He was the recipient of the prestigious ACM SIGCOMM 2000 award for “basic contributions to protocol design and modelling and for leadership in the development of computer networking in Europe”.
Being an Emeritus Professor since 1997, André was an active member of our scientific community through his involvement in numerous conferences and international research projects. Within IFIP, he chaired TC6 from 1980 to 1985, received the IFIP Silver Core in 1986 and was the Belgian TC6 representative until 2004. He was also an early member of IFIP WG6.1 and IFIP WG6.2. André had a strong, enthusiastic and endearing personality, and he left his mark on generations of students and numerous researchers.
All interactions with him were precious jewels of experience. We will miss him.
Guy Leduc and Burkhard Stiller
IFIP TC6 Past-Chair and IFIP TC6 Chair