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.