European Seismological Commission
In Memory of George Purcaru
Memories of a friend
A while ago, unexpectedly, I heard the sad news that George Purcaru, with whom warm and friendly feelings connected me, died on October 24, 2016. For the first time, I met George in August 1980 in Budapest at the 17th General Assembly of the ESC. He showed interest in my report. We were both very young, you might say, beginning seismologists, looking for your own way in science. This was the first ESC GA I attended. Later we often met at scientific conferences of different levels. Our communication was closest since 2000, when George invited me to make review algorithms and precursors for the forecast of strong earthquakes at the symposium where he was a convener at the 27th General Assembly of the ESC in Lisbon. We began to make contact more often (usually George called me in Moscow by phone), to submit joint proposals for holding symposia. Then there were several years of teamwork in the ESC working groups related to earthquake prediction studies. George worked actively. All the time, new ideas arose in his head. He read well in Russian and often asked me and my Russian colleagues to find and send him articles of Russian scientists. Last time we met with George at the General Assembly of the ESC in Moscow in August 2012. To the ESC GA in Istanbul in 2014 he could not come, and I convened our joint symposium alone there.
George was a good man. Let him remain so in our hearts. May he rest in peace!
Prof. Alexey Zavyalov