Message of condolence from the ATLAS Collaboration

30 November 2007

It is with great shock and deep sorrow that the ATLAS Collaboration was informed of the tragic death of our colleagues. Many of us had much more than a professional relationship with them : we also lost dear friends.

In this dark moment our first thoughts are with the close families and friends of the victims. We would like to convey our sincere condolences to them. Our sympathy extends very much also to all our Turkish collaborators, to colleagues in the Physics Departments, and also to the whole Turkish particle physics community.

Professor Engin Arik pioneered the Turkish involvement in ATLAS, as she did more generally the Turkish involvement in CERN. She joined the ATLAS Collaboration very early on from its beginning 15 years ago. With her enthusiasm for physics she motivated several generations of young physicists working hard and successfully on the project. It is so sad that she will not now be able to share the final results of our common dream when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will turn on and produce New Physics.

Engin Abat and Berkol Dogan were among these young, bright students that came out of the school of Engin Arik. They worked for the future of physics with great love for science, as they learned from their Professor. Words are not adequate to express how cruel it is that they will miss all the excitement to come for which they worked so hard.

The spirit of collaboration in ATLAS set out by Professor Engin Arik will remain, and we will do our best to cultivate it. She will not be forgotten in ATLAS, and we hope to honour her memory, as well as those of Engin Abat and Berkol Dogan, by continuing a fruitful common exploration of the physics, of which they would all have loved to be a part.

On behalf of the ATLAS Collaboration

Peter Jenni

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