It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Jean Cognet, which occurred during the night of Sunday, December 4th to Monday, December 5th. After obtaining a PhD from Cornell University (USA) in 1984, Jean Cognet joined the molecular modeling team of the Molecular Pharmacology Laboratory at the Gustave-Roussy Institute and then the Laboratory of Biomolecular and Cellular Physico-Chemistry at the Pierre and Marie Curie University. Appointed professor at this university in 2000, he has been a member of the Jean Perrin Laboratory since its installation on campus in 2012.

A specialist in DNA modeling, he has extensively studied the molecular dynamics of aptamers with a constant and meticulous will to confront his predictions with experimental data, especially those from NMR in collaboration with the CEA. He then proposed a new approach to model biopolymers, called BCE for Biopolymer Chain Elasticity, which is based on the elasticity of biomolecules, with their skeletons considered as elastic rods. This new concept, of which he was the undisputed specialist, at the interface of physics, mechanics, chemistry, robotics, mathematics and computer science, proposes to unify in a single description the structure of nucleic acids, peptides and proteins.

A demanding teacher, he was keen to answer with passion to all the students who followed these teachings. Appreciated by all his colleagues, his commitment to the transmission of knowledge and the development of original teaching methods was impressive.

We will remember him as an endearing soul, very kind, with an inquisitive mind very open to the world and to others, and who had a sincere and inexhaustible passion for science and teaching.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends.