A dear colleague and a worldwide expert

Dear Noriko, Maya, Yuma and Abi,

 

I learned the very sad news on Sunday. Your husband and father was an exceptional man and brilliant scientist.

 

I had known Ellis for nearly 20 years at Lafarge. We worked more closely together during the period 2008 – 2011. I was really impressed by his unique expertise in the cement industry : not many scientist can claim to know both the production and the cutting edge research in our field ! Ellis was one of the very few to have successfully filed patents leading to industrial applications and actually selling!

Ellis had a wide breath of knowledge in the cement chemistry and was able to bring some sense to the organic and mineral interactions, while applying thermodynamics.

We had a very special time together when we looked at the many emerging start-ups in the CO2 field around 2008. Ellis had a very sound expert judgement but was open enough to look for opportunities and to imagine combinations or further developments.

The last time when I saw Ellis was around 2 years ago during a dinner for his retirement. He was happy to be able to travel and enjoy more time with his dear family while keeping contributing to science with Imperial College and Nanocem.

I contacted him 10 days ago as I would have loved to meet again now that I am more available here in Lyon. In particular, I would have loved to know him and his so diverse family better. He answered that he was not feeling well but I was not expecting such a sad outcome.

 

With my deepest and most sincere thoughts,

 

Pascal Casanova

Former R&D director at Lafarge