Paul Geladi
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Paul Geladi was born in Belgium in 1951, received his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 1974, and his Ph.D. in Analytical chemistry from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in 1979. He had a unique profile in combining expertise in analytical chemistry with programming of microcomputers, an uncommon combination at that time. By the end of 1980’s he was convinced by late professor Svante Wold to move to Umeå, Sweden and join the Chemometrics research group, hosted at the Chemistry Department, Umeå University. As an Associate professor, Paul’s research in Chemometrics focused on Spectroscopy and Spectroscopic Imaging and multivariate calibration problems, especially using Near Infrared Spectroscopic data (NIR) which today has an enormous impact in research and industry in the analysis of complex samples, especially in agriculture. In May 2007, he became professor of Chemometrics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden, a position he held until 2016 when he became Emeritius and continued supporting chemometrics research and education. Over his career, Paul built an extensive international network of collaborators at universities and research institutes in Scandinavia (Vaasa Univ. in Finland, MatForsk Ås, Norway), USA (Univ. Washington & Potsdam univ.) and South Africa (Stellenbosch univ.). His research resulted in an impressive 188 scientific publications, cited more than 25 000 times, and coauthored three scientific books on multivariate image analysis and multiway analysis.
Condoleances
Hans Bärring
I Will always remember Paul as a very sharp scientist, an excellent hand-leader on my thesis work and a great visionary. He enjoyed the higher understanding that was brought into chemistry by applying a wide range of approaches where statistics and especially multi variate statistics where a great tool of higher freedom and understanding and thus unveiling information that was hidden by to many. Paul together with colleagues saw this potential and I was happy to have him as a great source of inspiration. He was relaxed, funny and humble. Paul had a wide range of intellectual interests - a truly kind and heartful person. I will forever miss him. I will forever use the tools of intelligence, information and life he shared with me. Thanks to Paul and also colleagues! May his soul always shine bright on us!
Sylvia Larsson
Paul was my PhD supervisor and later became an appreciated colleague for many years. One of his best secrets was to allow you to take your time when asking questions and guide you through them until you felt like you had answered them yourself. He was a kind and generous man and my thoughts go to his family.
Karin Wiberg
Paul was my teacher and inspirerad me to learn about and apply chemometrics in my research. He later became co-supervisor of two of my PhD students and my friend. With his silent and frank way of expressing himself, he became one of my most important mentors. Today is a very sad day. Rest in peace.
Mathieu Marmion
Paul was one of the first faces I met when entering the hyperspectral community. I will keep very good memories of him, and the talks we had were extremely useful. I address my sincere condolences to his family.