Tomas Isaksson

Professor Tomas Isaksson died unexpectedly in his home at Ås, Norway, on 12 July 2012, only 61 years old. Tomas was born in Skøvde, Sweden, but moved early to Norway for his studies in biochemistry at the University of Oslo. After receiving his master’s degree he had a temporary job in Oslo before he started working at Matforsk (now Nofima). At Matforsk he played an important role for about 10 years in a team that was put together for developing NIR methodology and multivariate calibration with focus on food products. In this period Tomas developed his basic skills in NIR spectroscopy and chemometrics, he got his PhD degree (in 1990) and established a broad international network. In 1996 he became professor of food science at the Agricultural University of Norway, a position he held until he died.

Tomas has published a large number of peer review papers and was co-author and co-editor of two books in the NIR area. He obtained a high international standing in his area and also got internal recognition through the Tomas Hirschfeld award (1997) and the Fellowship in ICNIRS (2011).

Tomas loved to travel and see new places and he often combined this with participation in international conferences and workshops all over the world. He gave a large number of presentations at conferences and he was well known and respected for his interesting and always well prepared presentations. He was well known for his abilities in making complicated things comprehensible. This made him a popular supervisor and teacher, and he was named lecturer of the year at the university more than once.

In addition to travelling, his hobbies were fishing, reading and handcrafts. Tomas had a lot of humour, he liked long and philosophical discussions and he was always interesting to talk with. His calm, friendly and down to earth attitude made him a pleasant company for all of us. He will be missed a lot both personally and scientifically at Campus Ås, Norway.

Tormod Næs, Vegard Segtnan, Elling-Olav Rukke and Jens Petter Wold