Subject: Tribute to Jean-Claude Risset From: Stephen McAdams <Stephen.McAdams(at)IRCAM.FR> Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 21:14:07 +0200Jean-Claude Risset, Sculptor and student of sound Jean-Claude Risset has been awarded the most prestigious scientific award in France, the Gold Medal of the Centre National de le Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). This is the first time this award has been given to a researcher in the engineering sciences section of the CNRS and it is particularly telling that it has been given to a person who has always followed a delicate path between the science and the art of sound. Jean-Claude is a Research Director in the CNRS at the Laboratoire d'Acoustique et de M=E9canique in Marseille, where he founded and directed the Computer Music team of the laboratory (try to imagine any other country where computer can be found as an integral component of a physics lab!). He is also an active composer whose work has centered around electroacoustic music, particularly music created through computer synthesis and computer-based sound processing techniques. Jean-Claude was on of the pioneers of computer music, working with Max Mathews at Bell Labs in the early years when computer music synthesis techniques were being born. He has also made significant contributions to our understanding of sound and music perception through his numerous explorations in the realm of timbre perception and sound illusions. He was one of the select group of composers and scientists chosen by Pierre Boulez to instantiate the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). I think readers of this list will join me in rejoicing in the fact that someone dedicated to the scientific study and artistic structuring of sound has attained this level of recognition and that they will also join me in extending to Jean-Claude our heartfelt congratulations. Stephen McAdams IRCAM, 1 place Igor-Stravinsky, F-75004 Paris, France smc(at)ircam.fr http://www.ircam.fr/ tel: (33 1) 4478-4838, fax (33 1) 4478-1540