In Memoriam: Louis Roesch (1937–2016)

Abstract

Louis Roesch passed away on 31 January 2016 after a long illness. He left numerous friends in the Metallurgy community, who lost a fellow researcher and a friend.After graduating from École des Mines de Paris (1957-1961, he got an MS at Caltech (California Institute of Technology), which is still today a popular reference [1]. In 1963 he joined the Physics Department of IRSID (The French Research Institute of the Steel Industry).His first research work dealt with ductile fracture and the effect of non-metallic inclusions: he produced samples of iron-alumina composite by powder metallurgy and used them to develop a model of fracture by void nucleation around the inclusions. This remains the reference model for ductile fracture today [2].In 1971 Louis Roesch was awarded the Rist Medal of SFM (French Metallurgical Society). Afterwards, he worked on many research projects related to the plasticity and fracture of steel. He was always keen to connect physical metallurgy with macroscopic mechanical properties. This led him to the study of deep drawing of thin sheets, to the analysis of the tensile test, including the generation of Lüders bands and the fracture phenomena.