To Jean Pouliot (1958-2015)
Berkeley 1985 (left) and more recently (right)
The title of this post is from a wonderful and powerful poem by Walt Whitman, delivered to a large public by a passionate performance in the movie Dead Poet Society.
It is here dedicated to my PhD thesis co-supervisor whom, through the years, became of a colleague, a co-conspirator in many fruitful scientific projects for which we successfully “tricked” numerous students to undertake them (as we acted as co-supervisors), and more importantly a dear friend.
Your contributions to the field of image-guided radiation therapy and brachytherapy have had tremendous impact in clinics worldwide and will live on for many years.
My best memories will always include not only the science but the moments in-between made possible because of it. One of them, close to my mind is this one time where after a meeting in Avignon (France), we decided to rent a car and spent half a day in Chateau-Neuf where, sitting on a terrace up on the hill, we tasted a Chateau-Neuf-du-Pape wine (the only kind on the wine list actually!) under a spring sun. We had a common reflection: life could be worse…
Chateau-Neuf 2003: Jean (left), myself (center) and another former student of Jean, Éric Vigneault (right)
Over the years, we collected many of these moments that turned out to be more important than the scientific enterprise that brought up there in the first place.
You left us too early; rest in peace, my friend.
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Top left: Northern France 1991 (I was starting my MSc degree!!!); Upper Top Right: Madrid Nucletron Users meeting in 2000; Lower Top Right: At Etienne Lessard PhD exam 2004 (the date on the picture is wrong); Lower Left: Jean-Francois Aubry post-PhD Exam reception (with Jean François, myself and Daniel Letourneau at the right are all Jean’s former students). Lower Right: In Boston 2008, again Jean is surrounded by former students: André-Guy Martin, myself and Éric Vigneault.
Ruminating... 