In very rare occasions a person crosses your way and makes so much good to you that changes your whole life for ever. It is even more unusual that the person never wants to take credit for it -“I did it just out of selfishness”. But being such a driving force for tens of often unknowns is something reserved to unique people.
José R. Ramos-Barrado was a unique individual. Beyond his contribution to science, during his tenure both as the Director of the Department of Applied Physics I and as the leader of our research group, he created a family that grew in his teachings. A Roman citizen of this time, a sage on squeezing the last drop of joy to life, a knight of other time, his fine balanced points of view and steel-sharp sense of humor were the sure end to any joust.
I had the immense luck to share his time, to grew as a scientist and as a person in that family, in that school. A school of its own class. Unlike many others, he made school.
He will be deeply missed.
Laser Spectroscopy and Sensing 