On 6 December 2009, the distinguished Spanish-Frenchphysicist and geoscientist, Albert Tarantola, passed away atthe age of 60. Born in Barcelona in 1949, he went to Pariswhere he lived most of his life, and worked as a professor atInstitut de Physique du Globe de Paris. His extensive scientificproduction and remarkable achievements in inverse problemtheory and geophysical data analysis established himas one of the most influential mathematical geoscientists ofour time. He became the father of probabilistic inverse theory,a theory that he passionately defended against severecriticism and managed to propagate to a major part ofthe geophysical community. Another major achievementwas his contributions to the theory of seismic waveforminversion — a work that right now is unfolding its potentialin large-scale computations. Albert’s contributions were notlimited to geoscience. He started his career in astrophysics,and later in his life he wrote several papers and books onphysics and probability, including new formulations of fluiddynamics, elasticity theory, global positioning, and scientificinference. Albert possessed a unique combination of exceptionalskills and remarkable mental energy. He was a veritablepowerhouse with an unusual work ethic, and hispassion for science will remain an ideal for all those whoworked with him.
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