Photo courtesy Prof David Nagel.

Just a few weeks ago many people around the world were saddened by the news that Bill Collis, CEO of the International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ISCMNS) was too ill to continue his long-standing expert management of the group. And on a grey London evening on the 20th of July, Francesco Celani messaged me with news of Bill's death just a few hours before.

Bill passed away in the Ospedale Santo Spirito in Nizza Monferrato, a quiet rural town in Bill's beloved Italy, a country that stole his heart long ago and became his permanent home. Emails of sympathy and support for his family and others with fond memories of meetings and dinners with Bill going back decades are piling up in the association mailbox. This is no surprise for everybody who met him was touched by a little bit of Bill's quiet and very British charm and flashes of serious wit. That was Bill the Diplomat at work.

20 years ago Bill, an Oxford educated Nuclear Scientist established the ISCMNS with the help of Professor Akito Takahashi and Professor John Dash, a formidable trio who foresaw what would be needed for the LENR field to survive and flourish.. It was Bill who drafted the ISCMNS constitution, set up the required legal frameworks as a business and a charity in the UK, and initiated the IWAHLM series of very popular meetings, initially with very limited financial resources. It was under Bill’s stewardship - and with the help of others of course – that the Preparata Palladium and Toyoda Gold Medals were generously gifted to the society by their respective families, most recently at ICCF-24 a Toyoda Medal was presented by Bill to Ed Storms. A few years ago Bill gave me the honour of presenting a Preparata medal to Fabrice David. The society also gave birth to a scientific journal, the JCMNS, so professionally managed by Jean-Paul Biberian. This, and the society website for ISCMNS were developed in great part due to Bill’s gentle insistence that it happened. His input of time and energy over several decades has been remarkable, truly an example to us all.

If you have thoughts or news for us relating to Bill's life and adventures, please share them with us here. Alan Smith.

Lettre N°43 In Memoriam William Collis Jacques Ruer 21/07/2023

Je dois hélas partager une bien triste nouvelle. William (Bill) Collis est décédé le 20 juillet 2023 à la suite d’une cruelle maladie. Tous ceux qui dans le passé ont participé à des conférences ICCF ou à des colloques IWAHLM se souviennent de Bill. Bill a créé la société ISCMNS (International Society on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science) en 2004. Il a sans relâche soutenu l’activité d’information à l’échelle internationale grâce notamment aux colloques IWAHLM organisés régulièrement en Italie. L’ISCMNS est également l’émetteur du journal JCMNS dont Jean-Paul Bibérian est l’éditeur qui est l’outil essentiel permettant de faire connaître les travaux scientifiques réalisés dans notre domaine. Quelque temps avant sa mort le comité exécutif de l’ISCMNS lui a décerné la médaille Preparata destinée à récompenser les travaux remarquables dans la fusion froide. Jean-Paul Bibérian qui a effectué un voyage à Nizza Monferrato (Asti) pour le rencontrer une dernière fois a pu lui annoncer personnellement. Que Jean-Paul soit vivement remercié. J’ai rencontré Bill pour la première fois en avril 2012 lors du 10ème colloque IWAHLM près de Sienne. J’avais beaucoup apprécié son entrain et sa capacité à rassembler autour de lui. Depuis nous étions resté en contact régulier. Son énergie pour nous soutenir dans nos actions était fort précieuse. Peu après la fondation de notre société SFSNMC par Mathieu Valat en 2014 Bill a émis l’idée que la SFSNMC se présente comme le miroir francophone de l’ISCMNS. C’est donc un membre éminent que nous avons perdu hier. La mémoire de Bill sera célébrée comme il se doit lors du prochain congrès ICCF25. Nous présentons nos sincères condoléances à sa famille et à ses amis.

A photo taken by Zhang Wu-Shou at Castel San Angelo during ICCF-15. It shows Bill speaking at the presentation of the Toyoda gold medal to Martin Fleischmann (seated). Unless I am mistaken the chap nearest the camera is Vittorio Violante.

Also this -from Roger Stringham...Bill and I were going to build a small piezo LENR device and sell it for under $100 but it got lost someplace in the ether like so many of our plans. I don’t think any of us will ever get rich but at least we got to play in the exciting LENR game.

Another nice story...typical Bill.

April 2012 IWAHLM number 10 , Certosa di Pontignano, Siena.The afternoon of Wednesday 11th was the excursion to San Gimignano

We had rented a Fiat Cinquecento at Pisa airport, so myself, Bill in the front
navigating, with two in the back arrived at San Gimignano.
I saw one of the very few car parking places, and drove into the car park EXIT.
Almost immediately a cop stopped me, shouted, and pulled out a pen and ticket.
Bill quickly jumped out and explained that I meant no harm but that I was a crazy
Englishman and therefore very stupid.The cop relented and waved me in.
Bill was very careful not to reveal that he too was a crazy Englishman.

ciao Bill.

That was Bill the Diplomat at work.

On the 25th between 9 and 10am Bill's funeral cortege leaves from Ospedale Santo Spirito Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi, 16, 14049 Nizza Monferrato AT, Italy - about 100k inland from Genoa, near Asti. Funeral service itself at Boglietto di Costigliole Strada Sottopiazzo the same morning.

Bill's funeral is now confirmed to be on the 25th at 10.30 AM Cimeterio Boglietto di Costigliole Strada Sottopiazzo. Costigliole is a tiny town where Bill has lived for many years. From the ISCMNS membership, Francesco Celani and family at least will be there. Maybe more, though there will be scientists in the USA, France, Japan, China, Italy, New Zealand, Ukraine and more thinking of him today and so there in spirit, if not in the flesh..

I would attend myself, in fact planned to do so, but I have an early flight to Porto on Wednesday to view testing of the ENG8 reactor, and the funeral is in a rather isolated part of Italy involving 6 trains and several buses to reach from Turin. If anything goes wrong with the trains I could miss both the funeral service and my flight to Porto

We have placed an obituary for Bill Collis on the Infinite Energy

website: https://www.infinite-energy.co…urces/william-collis.html

We hope to add additional quotes from colleagues (including any of you

who have not already done so and wish to), which we will add into the

online versus but also use in the print version (which will go to press

in late August).

The re-organization of the ISCMNS is briefly noted at the end. I will

contact Alan and Lynn about that soon. Marianne will be preparing a

selection of oral history material from Bill as well.

Thank you, Christy