David N. Schramm, one of the world's leading astrophysicists, was killed on December 22, when the twin-engine plane he was piloting crashed outside of Denver. The accident took place while he was flying from Chicago to his vacation home in Aspen, Colorado. Schramm had visited the Centre on two occasions: in 1988, he attended the Summer School in High Energy Physics and Cosmology and, in 1993, he presented a lecture at the Conference on Highlights of Particle and Condensed Matter Physics. Schramm, 52, was Vice President for Research and Professor of Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago. He was best known for his studies on the very early Universe and his analyses of the connections among particle physics, nuclear physics and cosmology.