<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252">
<style type="text/css" style="display:none;"> P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;} </style>
</head>
<body dir="ltr">
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial; color:#000000">Dear ASA members,</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial; color:#000000">It is with sadness that I deliver the news of the passing of Associate Professor Jean-Pierre Macquart yesterday. J-P was
at the peak of his research career, publishing in Nature this past week the first measurement of the missing cosmic baryons via the observed dispersion of Fast Radio Bursts, and featuring heavily in the media to announce this exciting result.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial; color:#000000">J-P undertook his PhD at the University of Sydney, studying scintillation in pulsars and quasars, and beginning an academic
journey to explore the structure of the interstellar medium. He graduated in 2000, before taking positions at the Kapteyn Institute in the Netherlands, and as a National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) Jansky Fellow at Caltech, USA. He joined the Curtin
Institute of Radio Astronomy and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in 2009, where he led the research group studying fast transients and scintillation in radio sources.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial; color:#000000">J-P was instrumental in developing and pursuing the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transient (CRAFT) Survey, which has detected
and localised FRBs emitted from the distant Universe. He led early scientific exploration on key aspects of the survey, advised the engineers on technical means of detection, and developed the theory to interpret the temporal smearing of FRBs. With optical
follow-up, the host galaxies of the FRBs have been imaged for the first time, providing certainty of the cosmological distance of these sources, and allowing them to be used to measure the baryons in the intervening intergalactic medium.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial; color:#000000">J-P will be remembered as an exceptional scientist and theorist, with the ability to turn his hand equally to observation
and engineering. He was most happy doing pen-and-paper calculations, having robust scientific discussions with colleagues, and teaching his students. He was a brilliant man with a satirical sense of humour, and a passion and excitement for his science. Those
of you who had the good fortune to know J-P know that he had a singular personality. He was equally at home discussing fundamental physics as he was imitating Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial; color:#000000">Beyond this, J-P was a very kind person and a devoted family man. He was a great friend for many of us over many years, and
our community has lost a great scientist and a dear friend.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial; color:#000000">Our thoughts are with J-P’s wife, Sherine, and his children. Curtin University will hold a memorial for J-P at a future date.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial; color:#000000"><br>
</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial; color:#000000">Regards,</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial; color:#000000">Cathryn<br>
</span></p>
<br>
</div>
<div>
<div id="Signature">
<div>
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div id="divtagdefaultwrapper" dir="ltr" style="font-size:12pt; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:rgb(255,255,255); font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,"EmojiFont","Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji",NotoColorEmoji,"Segoe UI Symbol","Android Emoji",EmojiSymbols">
<div name="divtagdefaultwrapper" style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:; margin:0">
<div style="font-family:Tahoma; font-size:13px">
<div style="font-family:Tahoma; font-size:13px">_______________________________________________________<br>
Cathryn Trott<br>
<br>
Associate Professor</div>
<div style="font-family:Tahoma; font-size:13px">ARC Future Fellow</div>
<div style="font-family:Tahoma; font-size:13px"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Tahoma; font-size:13px">President, Astronomical Society of Australia<br>
<span><br>
ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D)</span><br>
<br>
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research<br>
Curtin University<br>
Bentley WA, Australia<br>
<br>
cathryn.trott@curtin.edu.au<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>