Dear Colleagues, I have the regret to inform you that Jacques Bertin, author of the well-known book "Semiology of Graphics" and pioneer of the domain of visual representation of abstract data for exploration passed away on May 3rd at the age of 92. Jacques Bertin was a cartographer by training, but he expanded the field and created and improved a very large number of graphical representations of abstract data. His books are incredibly rich and will remain a source of inspiration for several generations of visualization researchers and practitioners. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bertin -- Jean-Daniel Fekete Jean-Daniel.Fekete@inria.fr AVIZ Team Leader, INRIA www.aviz.fr INRIA Saclay - Île-de-France www.aviz.fr/~fekete Bat 490, Université Paris-Sud tel: +33 1 69156494 F91405 ORSAY Cedex, France fax: +33 1 69154240