RIP Colin Pillinger

[bish]

Sad to here he has passed away. Obviously best known for involvement with beagle 2 and the OU. Used to regularly see him interviewed on TV.

[oldpink]

just seen this on the news

[NickK]

My condolences to his family

I hope that the UK sees more people visibly willing to push forward our space program!

[zedds]

Sad news.

[Steve 1962]

Very sorry to hear the sudden and sad news about Colin - I always enjoyed his enthusiasm.

[nitram100]

RIP, I remember reading a lot about him when I did my OU Astro course, learned a lot about Beagle etc what a loss and he was quite young.

[Goonrdolly]

Very sad news rest in peace Colin

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[DaveS]

Desperately sad news.

[DarkerSky]

Just heard the news. Shocked. My thoughts go out to Colin's family, friends and colleagues. From my knowledge he was a driven guy passionate about British space exploration. In January this year I was fortunate enough to attend a talk by Colin's project partner on the Beagle 2 mission. It was a fascinating insight. He will be much missed.   

[x6gas]

My condolences to Professor Pillinger's family and friends also.  This is a very sad loss.

I had the pleasure of meeting him on a few occasions over the past decade.  The first time he was already walking with sticks due to his MS but he was absolutely indefatigable despite that terrible disease.  He was energetic, enthusiastic, and an inspirational advocate for science. 

The fact that he was from Bristol and always retained that rich accent was a bonus.  He really will be greatly missed.

Ian

[Gweedo]

I wrote to him prior to the Beagle 2 landing sending him our best wishes as a family and hoping that the landing would be a success for British science and engineering. Despite what must have been an incredibly busy time for him, he was gracious enough to reply to my family, and did so again once it was confirmed that the spacecraft was lost.

A true gent, that through force of personality and drive made something happen despite the best efforts of beaurocrats to stymy him.

RIP, and thank you

[Freff]

Sad news to hear of Colins passing, God Bless him... a lovely bloke.

[Paul M]

He was interviewed by Jeremy Vine on R2 a few weeks ago. I listened to it at the time and thought it was interesting.

Bit of a shock to hear he's died

He was my kind of scientist. Driven by passion rather than a careerist.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio2/human/human_20140205-1525c.mp3

[MND]

Astronomy needs people like Colin. Reason I got so into it is because of another guy who worked on Beagle and Cassini, I found it all so fascinating that I wanted to know more and more.

[mjpfc]

All science needs people like Colin and we've so few left.

In the past couple of years we have lost Mick Aston, Sir Patrick and now Colin.

In the main, carreer scientists of all disciplines make moderate to poor popularisers and coomunicators, and as often as not, good

communicators, especially in and on the media are bbish scientists.

In losing Colin we have lost still another who excelled in both.

Mick

[r3i]

Sincerest condolences, a great loss. 

Came as a shock, even more so because myself and a couple of work colleagues were just talking about him and Beagle 2 only yesterday.

[jason.p]

So sad. A great loss. We need more passionate and inspiring scientists like him.

[starman1969]

Sad news. I remember it well. The Beagle 2 was a famous failure, but a glorious one.