I am shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden and tragic death of award-winning writer, astronomer, physicist, and science historian Jean-Louis Trudel.

I first met Jean-Louis at ConAdian, the Winnipeg Worldcon, where he taught me the proper manuscript format for short stories. But it was during my early space engineering career in the Montreal area that I really got to know Jean-Louis through our mutual membership in the Commune writing group, and that was when he became a mentor, confidant, and friend. Many years later, I had the great pleasure of buying his powerful climate change story “The Snows of Yesteryear” for the hard SF anthology Carbide Tipped Pens.

Jean-Louis was a gifted writer and a brilliant polymath who could speak with humble expertise on almost any topic from Franco-Ontarian history to the nature of distant extrasolar planets — all with his characteristic warmth and humour and supernova bright smile. I will miss him terribly. My condolences to his family and friends.