In Memoriam

This book is dedicated to the memory of our esteemed colleagues

• Bernard AUBEUF
• Francis GILLET
• Henri GONTARD
• Roland PRAYER
• Patrick VIBERT

and of the other 15 persons who died on 1^st of July, 1999, in the tragic accident of the cable car giving access to the IRAM interferometer site on Plateau de Bure.

Bernard AUBEUF and Patrick VIBERT had been with the IRAM interferometer since the very beginning of its construction. With the help of Henri GONTARD, they had assumed the difficult task of handling the cable car, the general maintenance of the Plateau de Bure buildings, as well as long days of snow clearing to allow the configuration changes in winter. Francis GILLET and Roland PRAYER had been regularly joining the IRAM staff for the summer maintenance, and for the construction of the antennas.

15 employees of companies working as contractors for IRAM (either on the baseline extension, or on facilities like telephone equipment) also lost their lives in that accident.

Without their efforts, millimeter astronomy would never have come to the Plateau de Bure site. We wish to dedicate these proceedings to their memory.