I am circulating at the request of Lydia Tchang-Brillet, on behalf of 

colleagues of Joëlle and François Rostas from ISMO (Orsay) and LERMA 

(Paris-Meudon Observatory).





Dear colleagues,



It is with a deep sorrow that we inform you of the passing of François 

and Joëlle Rostas, who left us on Saturday 15th June at the age of 84 

and 85.



François Rostas was a graduate of the Ecole de Physique et Chimie 

Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI) and Docteur es Sciences of 

the University of Paris. After six years at the Compagnie Générale 

d'Electricité Research Center in Marcoussis, he joined the French CNRS 

and then spent his entire scientific career at the Observatoire de Paris 

on the Meudon site. Joëlle studied at the Sorbonne. She joined the CNRS 

in 1961 and completed an internship with François at the University of 

Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1961-62. She joined Sydney Leach's team, 

and became one of the founders of the Molecular Photophysics Laboratory 

in Orsay in 1967. In 1969, she received the CNRS Bronze Medal for her 

thesis work.



A brilliant physicist, François Rostas was very active at the Physics - 

Astrophysics interface. He initiated many projects of his experimental 

physics team. After working on spectral line broadening by collisions 

with neutral atoms, including hydrogen atoms, he devoted himself to VUV 

molecular spectroscopy and photodynamics of small molecules. He brought 

an invaluable contribution to the study of photoabsorption and 

photodissociation of the CO molecule, which plays a major role in the 

interstellar medium and circumstellar environments. He had held many 

responsibilities within the Paris Observatory, in particular, as 

Director of the Department of Fundamental Astrophysics (1978-1981) and 

Vice-President of the Observatory (1981-1983). He had been an active 

member of the International Astronomical Union, in Committee 36 "Theory 

of Stellar Atmospheres", and especially Vice-Chairman and then Chairman 

of Commission 14 "Atomic and Molecular Data". He organized several 

conferences, including the International Spectral Line Shapes Conference 

in 1984 in Aussois and a Joint Discussion at the UAI General Assembly in 

Manchester in 2000.



Joëlle was an internationally renowned spectroscopist. During a stay in 

Ottawa in the laboratory of Gerhard Hertzberg (1971 Nobel Prize in 

Chemistry), she collaborated with leading international specialists, 

such as John Hougen, Harry Kroto (1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) and Jim 

Watson. We should also mention Robert W. Field (MIT), Mark A. Johnson 

(Yale) and Richard N. Zare (Stanford). She always had friendly relations 

with everyone. In 1975 she co-authored an article in the Journal of 

Molecular Spectroscopy (cited 793 times) that defines the two classes of 

parity symmetry governing the structure of linear molecules. Specialist 

in high-resolution molecular electronic spectrum, including the 

rotational structure, she analyzed perturbations between electronic 

states and their effect on the dynamics of molecules. She was 

particularly involved in the study of spectra of molecular fragments 

initiated from collisions of excited atoms with molecules. She was also 

involved in the study of molecular ions of astrophysical and atmospheric 

interest.



Joëlle, at the Molecular Photophysics Laboratory at Orsay and François, 

at the Observatoire de Paris, trained many students. Many of them are 

now Research Directors or Professors. All deeply appreciated their 

exceptional availability, their attentive listening and their rigor. 

Both knew how to stimulate their students by constantly suggesting new 

lines of research. On the occasion of their retirements, a symposium 

organized in 2003 in their honor was entitled "Photodynamics and 

Astrophysics, a couple united by spectroscopy", a wink.



François and Joëlle Rostas had a vast culture. They particularly liked 

theater and music. Their students and colleagues appreciated their sense 

of responsibility, kindness, humor and their human qualities. We will 

miss them and we will not forget them.



To their daughter Véronique and their son Laurent and their loved ones, 

we extend our most sincere condolences.



Text transmitted by their colleagues from ISMO (Orsay) and LERMA 

(Paris-Meudon Observatory)

























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