It is with the deepest sorrow that I have to announce the unexpected passing away of Françoise Martine Winnik and of Tito Fortunato Arecchi, both members of our Scientific Committee.

Françoise was born and educated in Mulhouse, France, and received her MSc and PhD in organic chemistry and photochemistry from the University of Toronto. During her post-doctoral studies in medical genetics in the University of Toronto, she was introduced to intercellular interactions and to the functionalities of cell-surface carbohydrates. At the Xerox Research Center of Canada, she investigated new materials strategies for xerographic toners and ink-jet inks. The industrial work converted her to a polymer chemist and led her to design novel polymer-based nanoparticles. When she entered the academic world, she used her industrial training in polymer science to design smart nanoparticles that could interact with cells. This topic took her to undertake fundamental studies in the colloid and surface science. Her group has pioneered the applications of microcalorimetry, in particular pressure perturbation calorimetry, and fluorescence techniques in the study of aqueous polymer solutions. Over the last years, Françoise has carried out several interdisciplinary projects that involve strong collaborations with scientists worldwide in different areas such as polymer physics and organic/inorganic nanoparticle synthesis to protein chemistry, pharmacology, nanomedicine, cardiology, and medical imaging.

Author of more than 380 papers, she was executive editor of Langmuir ACS, principal investigator at the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics National Institute for Materials Science in Japan and Finnish Distinguished Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Helsinki. She passed away on February 13, 2021.

Tito was born in Reggio Calabria and died in Florence on February 15, 2021, at the age of 87. A pioneer in quantum physics and in laser technology, he was emeritus professor of Physics at the University of Florence. He worked as visiting professor at MIT, taught at Stanford, and collaborated with the Ibm Zurich Research Laboratory and the Ibm Research Laboratory in San José. From 1975 to 2000 Tito directed the Italian National Institute of Optics, setting original research such as photon statistics and complex phenomena in lasers. In 1995 he received the Max Born Medal of the American Optical Society. In 2006 he won the Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society for the first experimental demonstration of the statistical properties of coherent radiation.

Tito's major scientific contributions are the discovery of order and chaos phenomena in lasers and their description by photon statistics. He explored the space-time complexity of optical systems and the control and synchronization of chaotic systems. His research areas span from cooperative effects in quantum optics to photon statistics and laser fluctuations, from complex phenomena to cognitive processes. He is the author of several essays and more than 350 scientific articles, and of several books e.g. "Coherence. Complexity. Creativity" (2007). "Symbols and Reality. Themes and methods of science" (1990), "Determinism and complexity" (2000), "Chaos and complexity in the living" (2004), "Cognition and reality" (2018). And author of a much appreciated article published in Substantia (DOI: https://doi.org/10.13128/Substantia-40).

Chère Françoise, caro Tito, we will sincerely miss your human kindness, profound scientific expertise, knowledge and wisdom. Thank you for being somehow part of our story. Through your work and in your relationships you certainly made the world a better place.

R.I.P.