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Cliff Burrows from the University of Bath visited INSA Lyon on behalf of the MICG Board on 28 May to present the Bramah Medal in honour of Serge Scavarda to his widow, Odette Scavarda. The presentation was made in INSA Lyon in the presence of a number of Serge's colleagues including senior representatives of the University, and a representative of the Mayor of Mirabel, the area in which Serge lived.

Cliff Burrows explained the background of the award, that is in honour of Bramah, the acknowledged founder of fluid power, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)'s role in general and the MICG in particular in the context of the award. Odette expressed her gratitude for the award that was made known shortly before Serge's death. It gave him tremendous pride that his professional colleagues had acknowledged the value and quality of his work in fluid power, particularly his contributions to pneumatics, coupled with his seminal research in Bond Graphs and that was the basis for his work on inverse design.

Everybody who came into contact with Serge at a Conference, or a technical meeting, or in his University Laboratory was impressed by his quiet, warm personality as well as an undoubted mastery of his areas of professional specialisation. Any conversation with him was frequently punctuated by a smile that has left a lasting impression. He seemed at ease with the world and that was undoubtedly due to a very happy family life that was centred on Odette, his children and a growing number of grandchildren all of whom were even more central to his life than his undoubted love of engineering. The truth of that assertion is apparent to anybody who had the privilege of being a guest in their home where he will be missed even more than by his professional colleagues.

The foundation for Serge’s career was laid in his Engineer Diploma studies at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers where he was awarded a Silver Medal. He graduated in 1961 and spent five years in industry specialising in control engineering. In 1966 he was appointed as an Assistant at INSA Lyon and remained there until his retirement in 2003. During that period Serge was awarded a succession of promotions being made Assistant Professor in 1981, Professor (second class) in 1988 and finally Professor (first class) in January 1992. He was appointed Emeritus Professor in September 2003. From then until his death Serge continued to take an active part in advising students and colleagues at INSA as well as attending on a regular basis International Conferences where his contributions maintained the high standard we had all come to expect.

In 2007 he was awarded the Bramah Medal by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in recognition of his outstanding contributions to fluid power engineering coupled with his original contributions to Bond Graph techniques. The Institution, on the recommendation of the Mechatronics, Informatics and Control Group, also awarded him and his co-workers the Donald Julius Groen Prize 2002 for the Best Paper published in 2001 in the Proceedings, Part I: Journal of Systems and Control Engineering. These awards emphasised the quality and impact of his work and his international standing. Further evidence of that is his membership of Editorial Boards and an invitation to participate in a discussion retreat on Engineering Challenges for the 21st Century sponsored by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

During his career Serge presented over 100 papers at International Conferences covering his specialisation in pneumatics, control and Bond Graph methodology. The latter led to some seminal contributions to inverse design, a key issue in many areas of engineering not least fluid power system design. His work in pneumatics prompted an invitation to present a Seminar in Japan, and to the presentation of three Invited Lectures. In addition he contributed to the publication of seven books, two of which have been translated into English as well as playing a major role in his University’s affairs. From 1988 to 2003 he was Head of the Fluidetronique research group and from 1997 until his retirement Serge was Head of the Laboratoire d’Automatique Industrielle.

Serge and Odette were key contributors to the European Fluid Power community that met on a regular basis at Workshops and Conferences held at Aachen, Bath, Braunschweig, Dresden, Hamburg-Harburg, Linköping, and Tampere. He and a research student, Dr Richard presented a paper on 'Non-linear control of a pneumatic servo drive' in 1989 at the Second Bath International Workshop and he continued as a regular contributor through to retirement and beyond. During that period the Fluid Power Centres of Europe Network was formed with Serge a key partner. The regular meetings between Heads of the Laboratories and their spouses led to a deeper understanding that went far beyond professional interests. The success of that collaboration was due in no small measure to the influence of the spouses. Thus we were all able to appreciate the partnership shared by Odette and Serge and the contributions she made to his success. We in the fluid power community share the loss of a dedicated teacher, an excellent researcher, and a practitioner but above all a person of tremendous warmth and charity whom it was a privilege to call a friend.

Cliff Burrows, University of Bath