I didn’t expect much to follow from this conversation. I still believe the impulse was right, though. But Thierry came back to me during the conference and we had a long discussion on advantages and limitations of RDF in comparison to XML technologies. I didn’t realize it at the time, but he’s been really supportive for junior researchers, as I was back then. I think he was sufficiently familiar with most things I said — he had been co-author of quite a few papers with relations to RDF technologies already, and actually, we were sitting there together with Paul Buitelaar –, but maybe, there was a novel aspect in that nevertheless. In any case, he was kind enough to attribute his later commitment to (and his role as evangelist for) Linked Data in language technologies to me. He also encouraged me to strengthen ties with the ISO community, and at the next LREC, I was presenting an RDF edition of the Data Category Registry (later known as ISOcat) as a result of that.

In that same year, I joined a group of junior reseachers to form the Open Linguistics group of the Open Knowledge Foundation, and we began to work towards a Linguistic Linked Open Data cloud. We organized the first Workshop on Linked Data in Linguistics in 2012, and Thierry joined as a participant. Up to this point, we had been seeing each other once in a while (he was practically everywhere, but I didn’t travel too much, yet), but after that point, Thierry has almost always been at my side, academically speaking. Until last year, we co-organized the LDL workshop series together, we were active in the same networks, and we met every few weeks somewhere in the world. I even remember stumbling into him a few times at a train station by pure chance.

Although LLOD gained some momentum in the following years, it had not been the topic of major grants until that point. (Well, there was been Monnet, but their point was not so much Linked Data, but really ontologies, and LOD2 was only peripherally concerned with NLP.) I think that changed a lot, and I think it changed a lot because of Thierry. He might have been responsible for making LLOD the new hot topic of LREC-2014, I guess he helped a lot behind the scenes to keep the LDL workshop series alive, and with him, his invaluable ties with the language resource community would become the basis of the larger-scale European projects that followed.

In that regard, this community, and I personally, have to thank him a lot for his presence, patience, compassion, and openness … not just for Linked Data, but for research on language and language technologies, overall.

Most importantly, though, I remember him as a friend. We helped each other out at some occasions, he joined us for celebrating the nationalization of my wife, and certainly the most precious moments of all the scientific events we enjoyed together (the social events, of course) always involved him, usually (but not always) with a good bottle of wine, but always in a good mood. Thierry has just been such a constant in my professional and personal life in the past years that it feels strange to not meet him at conferences (and conference dinners), anymore. I still have difficulties to grasp that he’s gone. We still had plans, his sign ontology was on a good way, he was looking for intensifying his work on fairy tales, and we were just preparing his visit to me and my colleagues in Augsburg.

Rest in Peace, Thierry. You will be remembered for your dedication and for the impact you had on our lifes and research. We’ll miss you.

Thierry’s passion for his work was infectious, and he approached every task with unwavering enthusiasm. He had a remarkable ability to share his extensive knowledge and expertise with others, making complex concepts accessible and fostering a spirit of collaboration. Our time together in Skopje was marked by his willingness to exchange ideas, explore new approaches, and work towards common goals.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Thierry’s kindness and genuine interest in people left a lasting impression on everyone he met. He had a way of making those around him feel valued and appreciated. His warmth and openness created an environment where ideas could flourish, and friendships could grow.

While Thierry may no longer be with us, his legacy lives on in the knowledge he shared and the connections he forged. We remember him not only as a dedicated expert but as a wonderful human being who enriched our lives with his presence.
Thierry will be deeply missed, but his impact on our lives will be felt forever.

I remember a meeting at DFKI in 2005 with PhD students from Stockholm. Thierry and his colleagues impressed us with projects and progress. But most important they made us feel welcome and took their time to join us for dinner and a glass of wine.

I remember a student excursion to Saarbrücken around 2010 where Thierry navigated our bus to the DFKI and organised a great program of talks and interviews for a load of Uni Zurich students.

I remember Thierry and another friend who had a meeting on Lake Geneva and volunteered to transport Swiss Alpine Club books from Lausanne to Zurich that we wanted for digitisation. It turned out that the books filled the complete trunk of the car. Thierry remarked with a smile that he made a “heavy” contribution to our Alpine corpus project.

I remember a Dagstuhl seminar where Thierry would come every so often: “Come on. Let’s play some ping pong.” He was a good player.

I remember Thierry during the pandemic years when we met repeatedly to form an Austrian-German-Switzerland consortium to work on machine translation for German varieties. The project was Thierry’s idea, and I regret that it did not take off.

I remember Thierry at last year’s LREC in Marseille. We stood on the terrace and gazed over the harbour and the sea. We talked about life and good science and amazing technology and our many years in the field and the years to come…

I miss Thierry.

I met Thierry for the first time in 2008 when visiting DFKI in Saarbrucken as part of my PhD program. He “literally” opened the doors of his house for me. I could stay in his apartment until I found a place to stay for the remaining 4 months. What was he asking in exchange? Absolutely nothing. Just that I would cook a “tortilla de patatas” anytime…That is how he was, both professionally and personally: an extremely generous person.

It was always an absolute pleasure to work with him and spend time together. He was a very enthusiastic person that would never say “no” to a project, paper, or endeavor of any type. He would always listen to new ideas, evaluate them, and give valuable advice. His vast knowledge of the area would make him the perfect candidate to discuss topics and work with. I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to be involved with him in many projects over the years and become friends. He will be missed at any venue and in any project.

In loving memory.

On a personal level, I have rarely met a person so friendly, full of warmth and empathy for others. He was able to relate on a very personal and intimate level with all of us, showing appreciation and respect for everyone. He thus had many true friends scattered all around the world.

If you would see a person alone somewhere at a conference, a newcomer, not integrated yet into the community or larger group of people knowing each other, Thierry would be the first one to relate and socialize with that person. He was a true embassador in every respect; his charisma, opennes and friendliness will be missed. I hope a little bit of Thierry will continue to live in every single one of us, as this will make the world a little bit better.

Rest in peace, dear Thierry.