A year without you. In memoriam
Prof. Juan Jose Saenz (UAM, Spain) - († - March 22, 2020)
Dear Reader,
(I apologise that this week's post will be dedicated to a person who left us a year ago, but I will write again this week with the second part of Nanomedicine).
At the end of 2003 and after several years working in research laboratories (CSIC, UAM and LILLY S.A.) I started working at the Phantoms Foundation where, among other things, we organised conferences all over the world. I was moving from being a conference participant to being part of the organisation.
It was a few months later, in 2004, when the first congress took place (1st nanospain workshop in San Sebastian). There I met Professor Juan José Saenz, whom everyone called "Mole". From now on I will refer to him by this nickname that he liked, although I have to admit that I used to mix both Juanjo and Mole, I guess that with time and the number of beers we had in our bodies I used one more than the other... Mole participated in that first conference because he was the coordinator of the Nanophotonics working group within the Nanospain Network (and this is where his relationship with the world of nanotechnology appears).
I had before me a professor of Physics (Department of Condensed Matter) at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Juanjo was a tall, very tall and rather large person, but he also had a big heart and an excellent way of being. I immediately realised that he was a person very much loved by his research group and very much respected by the scientific community. As I was on the organisational side, that allowed me to be close to important scientists.
Mole at different conferences (Animated GIF)
One of the traits that struck me most about Mole was the interaction he had with his students and even with students from the rest of the world. He liked them to ask him questions and he was interested in their research. Such was this relationship that one year, prior to 2003, Mole proposed to invite all the students and colleagues to a big barbecue on his birthday, which he used to call "Fiesta de la Leña" (Firewood Party) because he forced them to carry firewood to be able to attend. As time went by, I joined in with my wife and year after year we discovered the great affection they had for Mole and all his family. We joined in with this affection practically from the first time we came into contact with them.
Mole at the firewood party (Animated GIF)
Mole was a tireless researcher. As a good theorist, he would take advantage of any time of the day to keep on thinking about the riddles of physics. We coincided many times in different conferences, whenever there was a nanophotonics part present. From the Nanospain conferences, to the National Congress of Nanophotonics (CEN) and the TNT Conference, which was "our" conference. The TNT conferences were where we had the best time. When we finished the day's sessions and after stopping by the Hotel, we always went to dinner together and ended up having a few beers and talking about Physics/Chemistry. Surrounded by students, friends and researchers.
Lecture given by Mole, year 2019
Of the conferences we had the opportunity to share, I will always have unforgettable memories with Mole, but I suppose that anyone who asked him and had been there would tell us that it was the ICON2006 held in Choroní (Venezuela) that marked us the most from the organisational point of view and from the participant's point of view. We managed to get everything ready and prepared in the middle of a jungle very close to Playa Grande to spend 5 days talking and learning about NanoScience. A lot has happened since "those wonderful years". Nanoscience and nanotechnology was just starting to gain momentum and there were not many conferences on the subject
Mole was able to pass on that affection and sympathy to me in his dealings with students and congress participants. I think I have been able to transfer that affection and sympathy in my day to day life to the participants of our conferences, many of whom have become friends today.
I could spend hours and hours writing about you. Countless moments and anecdotes will remain forever in my memory. As you used to say, "there will always be time for the penultimate one" (Mole didn't like to end the nights without a last beer surrounded by friends).
Perhaps the reader who reads these lines did not have the chance to meet this professor and I hope to have given him a glimpse of an extraordinarily good person who fate decided to take away early.
I wanted to count on the participation of other direct friends of Mole and I have asked each of them to send me a short text reminding me of the figure of this great researcher and great person. I thank each of you for your help. I hope to see you again in person at the conferences when we are able to hold them again. I will leave the comments in this newsletter open for those who wish to leave a message.
Manuel Marques (UAM, Spain).
“Ni de coña”
Physics is a mathematically founded science based on experimental verification and, as so, every new proposal must be firmly grounded and checked against possible inconsistences or absurd outcomes not in agreement with nature.
In the scientific vocabulary of Juan Jose Sáenz this need for an extra warranty was summarized in the compact Spanish expression “ni de coña”, which can be politely translated as “no way”.
Most physics discussions with Juanjo started with a crazy proposal and a “ni de coña” response from him. However, in Juanjo’s mouth, this expression was not driven by arrogance or disparagement to his younger collaborators. Just the opposite, it was the opportunity to dive deeper and more rigorously into the physics concepts initially proposed, to stablish new and unexpected links with other fields and to foster new ideas.
Physics is, by itself, a wonderful science but, with Juanjo, it also turned into a highly enjoyable discipline. Although all these discussions were usually bounded by a cigarette smoke highly scattering atmosphere, a third round of beers, a scramble blackboard and plenty of chalk all over our clothes, right now, I cannot think on any other better scenario to discuss about science.
So, as long as the numerical outcome of the scientific calculation didn’t finish in five, “cinco” in Spanish (for reasons I cannot tackled right now but I would be happy to explain in more detail if requested), every discussion with Juanjo was an opportunity to learn from him and to boost crazy ideas much further than initially expected.
We miss him a lot.
Enrique Sahagun (Scixel, Spain)
Juanjo Sáenz, my friend, has recently left us. A lot is going to be said about him and I can’t add anything more to it: it is all true. He gave me the opportunity to discover the research world and at some point, just as an accident or a side effect I got a thesis manuscript written and a PhD title. The amazing people I meet in those years and the fun I had, it’s all his fault. And also my job today, somehow that’s also his fault.
It is really sad because he left too soon leaving a trail of happier, wiser, and grieving people. Just to describe the magnitude of this trail, a common friend said: it is terrible that this happened during the Covid-19 situation. His funeral would had looked like a state funeral. And that’s is also true.
See you man.
Pedro A. Serena (ICMM-CSIC, Spain)
The year 2020 has been a bad year due to a series of well-known circumstances, related to the covid-19 pandemic, and other personal ones. In my particular case, to the pandemic depression I must add the death of our Mole, also known officially as Juan José Sáenz Gutiérrez. His departure has been a hard, shocking and irreparable blow. Mole was one of my inspirational references during my training as a researcher, and since then a good friend, a person transmitting knowledge, enthusiasm and energy. We miss him.
Uzi Ladman (Georgia Tech, USA)
My first visit to Spain was in October 1973 for a conference where I had the privilege of meeting Prof. Nicholas Cabrera, and his young PhD student Nico Garcia. This led to a series of visits, and in one of those trips to Madrid in the early 1990s Nico introduced me to his former student, Juan Jose Saenz, a young Professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid. This started a long and deep friendship which lasted for close to 30 years, on both sides of the ocean. This took us to a series of TNT meetings organized by Antonio Correia and his team, where we shared goods science, good food, great company, and unforgettable joint experiences (some of which would remain only our own). Juanjo Became my ( and on occasions, Avital’s, my wife) trusted ‘guide’ to many fascinating visits in Spain, including Madrid, Segovia, Oviedo, Granada, Seville, Salamanca, Barcelona, Toledo, San-Sebastian, and more. But one that would remain forever etched in my heart was my visit with Juanjo to Gernika. There I witnessed the full humanity and proud Spanish identity of my friend Juanjo.
I will always miss him, and my future visits to Spain will not be the same without him.
My best wishes to his wife and children, and all those whose life intersected with Juanjo’s.
Antonio Garcia (IMN-CNM-CSIC, Spain)
I really miss my friend.
I still remember the day when our paths intersected. It was the first day of the second semester of Mathematical Methods for Physicists. A clearly non-conventional professor entered the room and started a fully disordered lecture. In retrospective, that disorder was good, it made you pay attention, otherwise it was nearly impossible to follow the derivations being written in the blackboard. Behind that surface, there was passion, and a keen, certainly non-conventional, intelligence.
I had the enormous privilege to be able to share almost thirty years of continuous discussions and discoveries with Mole, who also allowed me to be his PhD and make a living out of our passion. Being a scientist was much easier when you could, always and almost at any time, pick up the phone and talk to him (sorry Chiqui) about whatever that was causing distress, professional or personal.
Being not his colleague, but his friend is among the most precious events in my life.
Oh man, this world is so much darker now…..
Luis Froufe (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland)
I met Juanjo more than twenty years ago as an undergrad Physics student in Madrid. His style of teaching and his proposal to work with him on actual research problems appealed me very soon. Time passed and I completed my Master and PhD with him. During these years, my relation with him evolved into a deep intellectual admiration for him and, most importantly, into an even deeper friendship.So many non-stop Physics days until late in the evening, any day of the week, any place in the world, writing on the blackboard, writing on the paper napkin at the pub. So many discussions about things that matter and things that don’t. Always with a sparkling comment, always with a smile. Juanjo became Mole, my friend, my family.A year already passed since he is gone and, still today, a feeling of disbelief invades us. It seems we all just might meet tomorrow with Chiki and the kids to have a nice dinner, make plenty of jokes and then, yeah, Physics.At least we have a little sense of relief knowing how much people admired and loved him, knowing that there is a large group of friends, family and colleagues that will always make Mole stay among us, knowing that he left a legacy of knowledge, wisdom and humanity. I am so glad I have shared so many things with you, Mole
Jose Luis Costa Kramer (IMN-CNM-CSIC, Spain)
What we have laughed at!
A great one just left us. We will not forget Mole. Ever since I landed in a "parachute" at Nico´s lab after finishing my thesis in Stockholm I felt very close to him. He spoke the same language, even though he was a theoretician and from the UAM! The quantum conductance and physics in general attracted us like a good glass of beer in a sunny afternoon. We were together in sessions that the atmosphere could be cut with a knife and spent glorious times and evenings in many conferences. I had the honor of waking him up to chair sesions 30 min after leaving him to sleep in his room, right after driving "home" too many people from a long conference dinner :) Discussing physics was mostly what we did, and it was a real pleasure. Always interested in how we did experiments and ready to explain what he did in an accesible way.
I have spent some time looking for an appropiate photo, never been vey organized either, but this one from the organization table at TNT 2010 I think says it all. We celebrate and will miss you dearly Juanjo.
Stephan Roche (ICREA/ICN2, Spain)
Querido Mole, Dear Mole
One year has passed since your departure for a long journey but your presence and legacy remains deep into our hearts. I will keep the photo of our last encounter as witness of one of my best moments with you in this bar in San Sebastian, writing our scientific paper and supported by (too?) delicious Pacharán…what an afternoon Mole!
What a privilege it has been to know you and share so many and enjoyable life experiences, dancing on Loquillo o Séptimo Sello, o Alaska…etc…. and those late discussions with Antonio, Uzi, José, Pedro and all others, especially during the TNTs !.... And beyond this, I will ever remember and admire your enthusiasm for science and physics… I found in you an even more enthusiastic physicist than myself… a pity we never found the time for a closer collaboration into “crazy” ideas…I would have like to hear “ni de coña”…. Hasta Siempre Maestro!
Anwar Hasmy (Universidadv Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela)
I have always been inspired by scientists who have kept their passion for science intact throughout their careers. Especially those who are always willing to talk about science even with a few drinks in between, for the mere pleasure of rambling on concepts and phenomena in an informal environment that in my opinion is when the best ideas emerge. And among these scientists, the ones I most admire are those who, with transparency and solidarity, live with great intensity every opportunity that life offers. They are very few, and among these few was Juanjo. We miss you
Carmen Ocal (ICMAB, Spain)
Mole, do you know that you left 44 years after we met for the first time? I never had to do the count before, why should I? That was in our first year of Physics. It has been a too short time anyway. And Mole, do you know that looking for photos in which we were together, I have found very few? I never before thought I would need any to see your face. Why should I? If I could just see you. The photos…Yours and Chiqui’s wedding (what a mustache yours…what a curly hair mine…). In the Magdalena Palace (paying homage to Don Nicolás Cabrera). In my lab after one of ours meeting with Nico (of course… smoking and reading one paper…the newspaper!!). With my sister, your kids and mine in one of your first Firewood parties (in Becerril, we did collect real firewood there!)… During a congress dinner (J.L. Roldán kept this photo not me), and… That's it!
But I do not need any photo, I just close my eyes and there you are.
And Mole, do you know? I miss our “cafelitos” in a full of activity UAM that saw us grow while we saw it grow and that we both left behind, looking for new horizons. Mole, do you know? I miss our back and forth emails, our conversations, your beer and my glass of wine… How many scientific (or not) issues we solved that way… and how much world we repaired!
44 years ago we met and I cannot understand why you left, Mole.
Paloma Hernandez Nadal (Family Mole´s friend and my wife)
It has been an honour to meet a person like Juanjo and his family. The affection I had for him and all his family was reciprocated by the affection they offered me from the very first moment. Juanjo, you will always be remembered throughout our lives as the great person and scientist you were, day after day in our hearts
I met Mole in September 2013, and a few months later I had the privilege to become one of his PhD students. I have been really lucky to learn from him, to share with him hours of discussion in front of a blackboard (or a cup of coffee, or smoking a cigarrette, or all at the same time!), and to be influenced by his enormous passion for Physics. He was a brilliant scientist and a charming person. I miss you, Juanjo.
"If you cannot explain it on simple grounds, it's just that you don't understand it". Mole, you taught me this principle and I've tried to keep loyal to it since then; that was many years ago. You also taught me so so many other things... The space you've left within us, that we now try to fill with memories, your smile, your hugs... As Txiki said, it was not yet the time.