In memoriam

Pavel Rehak (December 5,1945 - November 4,2009 ) obtained his first doctoral degree at the University of Prague in 1969 and shortly thereafter, from 1969 until 1972 he obtained his second doctoral degree . In 1973, he work at CERN ISR (Intersecting Storage Ring ) as a research associate in the Physics Department of Yale University. Since 1982, his main interest has been focused on semiconductor detectors while maintaining a prodigious output in other areas. In October 1983, in a month of very intense work, he and Emilio Gatti conceived the idea of the silicon drift detector. Pavel's numerous contributions to many areas of contemporary charged particle, neutron and photon detectors, as well as physics are documented in over 230 publications, where he was a principal author or co-author. While his main interest over most of his professional life has been in detectors, 62 of his papers were on physics experiments. He has had a deep interest in physics, but most of his work was motivated by his belief that detector developments are among the main forces responsible for the progress in physics and in other natural sciences. He was truly a renaissance physicist, in that he could delve deeply into various areas of physics. He was well known for his penetrating questions at seminars and colloquia on any physics subject. On many occasions his single question during a talk would sometimes bring under scrutiny some of the basic premises presented in the talk. Pavel Rehak passed away after a brief illness. He will be missed in the detector community, in which he pioneered far reaching new concepts and widely influenced many individuals and groups around the world. He was a Fellow of IEEE and a Fellow of APS.