It is with great sadness that DIME has to announce that our friend and colleague Bent Dalum has passed away on the morning of 29 January 2010. Just after having left the DRUID Winter Conference on Saturday 23 January, Bent had a stroke and went into a coma from which he did not revive.

His death is a severe blow to the community of scholars working on innovation, and DIME in particular. Bent was very active in this community, and had been so for many years. In DIME, he was a member of the Executive Committee and coordinator of several activities in RAL1. Through his involvement, we came to know Bent as a very warm personality, a true friend to us all. Bent was not someone who put himself on the forefront, he seemed to prefer working in the background. His greatest efforts were aimed at providing opportunities for young scholars. Bent was a driving force in DIMETIC, the international training program for PhD students in DIME, and had been so since the early 1990s when he was one of the pioneers in the programs that would later feed into DIMETIC. He was also a driving force in the DRUID Winter Academy, and the transatlantic CCC, all platforms for PhD students to present, learn and network. Both as an organizer and at the events themselves, Bent put in long hours of work, always ready to comment on another paper, or to chair another session, and always with his typical smile that made everyone feel at ease immediately.

Also in his research, sharing was Bent’s main virtue. An important part of his research time went into the construction of databases, among other things on international trade, and on the mobile telecommunications cluster around Aalborg. He shared these databases generously with PhD students and other colleagues. It was all part of the great loyalty that Bent had to the community, and to those with whom he was working.

Bent was a very open and positive personality. Many of us have experienced the great hospitality of Bent and his wife Birthe, who generously invited people to their house in Aalborg, Denmark, for a good dinner, a pleasant evening of conversation, or even, literally, a home while visiting Aalborg University for a couple of weeks. On such occasions, it quickly became clear that Bent took great pleasure from the “smaller” things in life, such as a Dylan or Springsteen performance, a good football match, or a beer with friends.

To loose Bent in such an unexpected and sudden manner is unbearable to all of us. It is a great loss to the community, not only professionally, but most of all because Bent was such a kind, unique and deeply human friend. Our thoughts are with Bent’s wife Birthe, his son Mads and daughter-in-law Iben. Our thanks for all that Bent has given us are also to them. We cherish the memories of the good times that we spent with Bent Dalum, they are the only thing that can now provide us with some consolation.

Patrick Llerena, Peter Maskell & Bart Verspagen