17 February 2011 - Alireza Naghavi, University of Bologna and FEEM (Italy)
Dear all
In this very sad moment, I have to share a shocking, terrible news with you that Jo Lorentzen is no longer with us. He seems to have suffered a heart attack while jogging, after presenting at a conference in Pisa on Tuesday this week.
This is a huge loss to me and each of you, and I find it impossible to digest. The first time I met Jo it was to write the GINEUS proposal together in 2007. With the good heart he had, he became a very close friend of mine at no time. As little as we can do, I would like to dedicate our next meeting in Brazil to Jo, and hold the events in his memory and honour.
I think you all agree that the birth and life of INGINEUS originates from Jo. With his exceptional characteristics and personality, he was and will remain the nucleus of many networks of research and friendship.
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17 February 2011 - Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano, Bocconi University and FEEM (Italy)
I am speechless. We started the GINEUS adventure after Jo was introduced to me by a common friend at the OECD. It was impossible not to become immediately friends with Jo. Jo was such a positive energetic person that all this looks so unreal.
Apart from the Brazilian event, we should also try to dedicate something more durable to his memory, such as an INGINEUS publication.
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17 February 2011 - V. Ranganathan, IIIT-B (India)
I had to read the mail several times to convince myself that this is real. Apart from the fact he was the soul of INGINEUS, we admired his commitment to a healthy and clean habits, his attention to details and the apparent good-health that he seemed to have cultivated. I could not thank him sufficiently for all the help that he gave while in Cape Town and even after my return, regarding the episode of my losing my passport and the laptop.
Balaji and I would like to convey to Jo’s immediate relatives and family members our condolences and the sense of grief that we feel at the loss a fine fellow like Jo.
I share with you my grief in having lost a wonderful friend. Jo had touched a personal cord with me, though we had only a few occasions to interact. We, in fact just a week back, had talked to Jo and the way he used to call me "Brother" still rings in my ears. I am sure we all will miss him, both as a key person to INGINEUS and as a dear friend.
My heartfelt condolence.
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17 February 2011 - Marek Tiits, IBS (Estonia)
This is very sad news which we are shocked to learn about.
Our deepest sympathies.
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17 February 2011 – Julia Spies, IAW (Germany) and FEEM (Italy)
This is a real shock. Even though I only met Jo once, last year in Cape Town, his charisma and inclusiveness make me feel that his death is not only an incredible loss to his family and friends, but to humanity as such.
My sincere condolences to all of you who had the luck to get to know him closer.
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17 February 2011 – Eike W. Schamp, DIE (Germany)
I am shocked, I can't believe it. I just started to get to know him better, during and after the Cape Town meeting, and developed a friend-like feeling. I will miss his way of talking to us, his challenging way of thinking and his all-round care for trivia we put to him.
My condolence to his family and to all of you.
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17 February 2011 – Giorgio Barba Navaretti, University of Milan and LdA (Italy)
I would like to share with all of you the sorrow for the loss of Jo. I will always remember his very valuable comments, his encouragement and his great irony in dealing with all issues, from the most to the least substantive.
He will be regretted and he is a great loss for all our community and of course beyond.
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17 February 2011 – Helena Barnard, GIBS at University of Pretoria (South Africa)
I so struggle to talk about Jo in the past tense; it is hard to imagine such a vividly alive person no longer among us.
We should honour Jo's life and acknowledge his very sad and premature death. Jo was always keen to host a special session at Globelics. I think we should host INGINEUS session to celebrate his life in a community that he cared deeply about.
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17 February 2011 - Alireza Naghavi, University of Bologna and FEEM (Italy)
It is beautiful and incredible to see the impression of life and humanity Jo has left to such great group of people. Jo was good to everything, nature, animals, science, friends, and strangers. I cannot accept why we have to lose such a special person and leader so soon.
We all seem to be wanting to find a way to do something and contribute in one way or another. This will not bring him back to us, but we can let his close ones and people in the academic field know our thoughts and appreciation for him.
I believe whatever we do for Jo is too little. I would also like to have a publication dedicated to his memory and honour. I believe the most suitable candidate would be the Reseach Policy special issue he was editing with Susana Boras for WP10. The issue will also include his own work joint with Susana in it.
Jo is one of the people who will remain with us and will never be forgotten.
Once again my condolences, we share the same grief, a very sad one.
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17 February 2011 - Andreas Stamm, DIE (Germany)
I just came to office and read the shocking news. I met Jo also a couple of times beyond the INGINEUS meetings, e.g. when I was in South Africa in early 2009. I share your feelings.
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17 February 2011 - Eduardo Albuquerque and Gustavo Britto, CEDEPLAR-UFMG (Brazil)
Gustavo and I are shocked and devastated by the sad news about our friend Jo. We have written to Glenda Kruss, yesterday, sending our solidarity to her and to her colleagues in Cape Town.
This is very very sad. We all lost a friend and our community lost a great researcher. We would like to support our collective condolences to Jo's family – they will learn how global is Jo’s network of friends. We must dedicate the Brazilian INGINEUS meeting to him. This is important for us, in Brazil, since Jo let us know during our Cape Town Workshop how deeply was his preparation for the Brazilian Meeting.
He was reading Guimaraes Rosa - one major Brazilian novel (Grande Sertao: Veredas), in an Italian version. In this book, the narrator repeats again and again and again that VIVER E PERIGOSO - we would risk to translate as TO LIVE IS DANGEROUS or LIFE IS DANGEROUS or LIVING IS DANGEROUS.
Jo was involved in another project that included Brazil, since 2006: The IDRC Project on interactions between firms and universities. We are preparing a book, with the results from our research – there will be a Workshop in Brazil, September 2011 – and this book will be dedicated to him.
Our deepest condolences.
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17 February 2011 - Giulia Felice, Universiy of Milan and LdA (Italy)
This is really terrible.
I have met Jo only a few times, but he was such a smart and unique person that it is not possible to forget him. I can remember very well when you introduced him to me at the time you were working at the INGINEUS proposal and we were talking about the last changes and so on, here in Milan.
My condolences to all of you and to his family.
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17 February 2011 - Heidi Wiig Aslesen, NIFU-STEP (Norway)
So terribly, terribly sad an unbelievable. Such a personality and inspirational source that has left us much too early.
My condolences to his family and to all of you.
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17 February 2011 – Susana Borràs, CBS (Denmark)
It is a great idea to dedicate the special issue in Research Policy in honour of Jo. We are having our workshop for this special issue next week in Copenhagen (24-25 February). Since many INGINEUS people will be gathered there, I will organize a little memorial for Jo.
It will be a good occasion to share our memories of him, of the good moments we had together, and our sorrow of having missed him so early.
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17 February 2011 – Valeria Papponetti, FEEM (Italy)
I feel the need to share with you my deep sadness for losing Jo.
When he talked Italian he had a Tuscan accent that was so cute.
We all have good memories of him. I treasure especially one. After the boat trip we had in Cape Town Jo and I walked through the city to distribute the left-over sandwiches to the poor. It was and still is one of the most touching experiences of my life.
I cannot say more. But I thank you all wholeheartedly for your messages and the love that spread from them.
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17 February 2011 – Davide Castellani, University of Perugia and LdA (Italy)
When I first met Jo at the INGINEUS at kick-off meeting in Bologna I was struck by his apparently rude manners and his strong sense of humour and irony, which was not always easy to grasp. At the meetings in Joburg and Cape Town I had the chance of know him better and realize that instead he was such a caring person, with such a deep sense of friendship and altruism. I was looking forward to meeting him again in Copenhagen. I will terribly miss him.
I concur that the next workshop, conference and the RP special issue should be dedicated to him and think that, more generally, all publications and research output from the INGINEUS project should be dedicated to his memory.
My deepest condolences to the family, friends and all of you.
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17 February 2011 - Giovanni Prarolo, University of Bologna and FEEM (Italy)
I have just joined the INGINEUS crew and I was looking forward to meet you all in Copenhagen next week. In particular, Ali and Maria told me about the irony and vitality of Jo, and that he's the kind of person with which everybody immediately get a feeling.
Your mails confirm and reinforce the expectations I had about Jo, and I feel I have missed the opportunity of meeting a great person.
My condolences to you all, knowing that Jo will remain in your hearts and minds.
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18 February 2011 – Xielin Liu and Lv Ping, GUCAS (China)
It’s so sad a moment to know the shocking new that Jo is no longer with us, and it’s unbelievable to accept that we lose such a gentle friend and wonderful scholar. His active presence at INGINEUS meetings and warm hospitality to us in Cape Town are still very clear in our memories.
The last email I wrote to him was on this Tuesday, but it seems that I will never receive his response with smart insights and sense of humour. It's really so terrible and unreal…
Deep condolences from his Chinese colleagues and friends.
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18 February 2011 – Monica Plechero ULUND (Sweden)
It is hard to find the words to express the incredible sadness that this news have brought to me. I think that many of us have never known Jo so well as we know him now. This thanks to all nice memories and words about him that colleagues and friends are now sharing.
A very big part of his kind and sweet nature was so visible when he was speaking Italian. I have still in mind the melody of his voice and the constant beautiful smile on his face when speaking my language.
My deepest condolences to all the people who had the honor to meet him.
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18 February 2011 – Björn Jindra, Halle Institute of Economic Research (Germany)
It is very hard to come to terms with Jo's death and it will remain so for some time to come. Reading your messages and thinking what we could to in honour of him helps me a lot.
In this context I thought we could try to establish a "Jo-Lorentzen-Award" for the Best Paper from an African Scholar/or a paper on Africa at the GLOBELICs conference.
From my point of view, Jo's mission over the recent years was to trigger more innovation related research in development in general and Africa in particular. At the conference in Honour of Nick von Tunzelmann at SPRU, Jo made the point that Africa is basically absent from all main innovation journals. Thus, if we link the "Jo-Lorentzen-Award" with a possibility for publication in a established innovation journal such as Research Policy, we somehow could contribute to fulfill his mission. At the same time the Award would generate an institution that allows us to remember him.
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18 February 2011 – Cristina Chaminade, ULUND (Sweden)
It has taken me a while to be able to write and share my grief with you, as you all did. It is so clear that Jo touched so many hearts and that he will be deeply missed.
Both him and Helena invited me to South Africa and for several weeks they took care of me. Jo took me out to Cederberg for one week trekking and hosted me in his beautiful house in CT. As many of you know Jo was a Jazz lover. He had his own radio program, every Saturday afternoon. He invited me to have a program devoted to Bossa Nova. It was an unforgettable experience. I truly appreciated this kind way of encouraging people to try different things. Nothing was impossible for him.
I wholeheartedly support all the initiatives suggested here in his honour: the award, the sessions in Globelics in his honor, the dedication of the special issue and the papers written in INGINEUS.
I thought about something more symbolic. Jo loved nature and animals, so I thought that may be we could plant a tree in his memory. I will do it in Gredos and may be some of you can do it in other parts of the world.
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18 February 2011 – Balaji Parthasarathy IIIT-B (India)
Much like all of you, I too have struggled to come to grips with the loss of Jo. I met him four years ago, in February 2007, at a workshop at the German Development Institute in Bonn. It was the conversations at that workshop which Jo initiated that eventually resulted in INGINEUS. Since then, it was a privilege to know a human being who was a rare combination of wit and warmth, comradeship and scholarship.
We had recently exchanged emails about ideas to discuss in Belo Horizonte. Since fate has intervened to ensure that those discussions will not include Jo, we perhaps have to take comfort in believing that those whom the Gods love, die young.
While I am sure that Jo will live on in our minds and hearts, I support the fine initiatives that have been proposed in his honour: the Africa award, the sessions in Globelics in his honour, the dedication of the special issue and the papers written in INGINEUS. If there is anything I can do to help bring these initiatives to fruition, I will be more than happy to do so.
I was especially touched by Cristina's suggestion that we plant a tree to mark Jo's affinity for nature. I will certainly be doing that in my corner of the world.
May Jo's soul rest in peace.
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20 February 2011 – Nick von Tunzelmann, University of Sussex (UK)
I returned to my work in Brighton on Friday after several blissful days "in purdah", i.e. in Brussels without access to a computer or the internet (otherwise known as a condition of being "in purgatory"), only to read this shattering news awaiting me, about the sudden death of Jo Lorentzen while out jogging in Pisa.
Like many of his friends, I imagine, I just stood staring disbelievingly into space for such a long time: Jo was after all one of the fittest people I know. He was always getting me (and others) out speed-walking (or so I reckoned it to be - to him it was no doubt just strolling), contrary and indeed generally oblivious to my continuing protests and under his very own false pretences of severely underestimating both the time and the distance involved; whether simply going downtown to a restaurant and music dive bar in Cape Town, or around the rather crumbling seafront from his house in Muizenberg under Table Mountain to Kalk Bay, or around the back streets of his beloved city of Bologna in Italy.
Added to this is the evidence from his photos, frequently sent, of himself out 'roughing it', e.g. mountain-biking. Jo lived his life very close to the raw edge, which could easily put people off on first encountering him, until they began to realise that behind a somewhat gruff and even aggressive facade there was a real person of spirit, resolve, but above all of friendliness to a quite extreme degree. Once he had decided you were for him, he would do almost anything to protect you and guide you.
I for one could never forget his contribution to the conference last March to which Bjorn has already drawn attention - whose official title quickly became airbrushed in our mutual correspondence into the "conference in honour of somebody or other". Jo was so keen to get invited - or so the legend has it - that not only did he send off his abstract to the programme committee, having found out that by deliberate choice I was not a member thereof (so as to avoid any charge of favouritism), but he also ensured that he would be there by dint of securing the following day for an INGINEUS committee meeting, in the selfsame Freeman Centre. As it was, he made it on his own efforts anyway, through having his abstract accepted among the favoured top quartile of all submitted abstracts for the conference. It now befalls me to get his paper acceptable for one of the special journal issues from the conference proceedings, which I hereby undertake to do, naturally in the same spirit of impartiality that I have been discussing.
The raw edge I have spoken of showed up in many different spheres of his life, like his radical politics, like the places he had chosen to live in, his love of animals and especially his faithful dog, his love of jazz and the accompanying radio show (from which he was eventually fired for having quoted the f-word), and so on ad infinitum.
He was definitely not the sort of person you would think of turning to if you wanted a quiet life. Jo was in fact very much a one-off - a unique personality, whom it would be almost impossible to reinvent. His loss is a devastating one, not just for our project of course, but for the whole field of innovation studies, particularly though not solely as it has been beginning to open up in South Africa.
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20 February 2011 – Rajneesh Narula, University of Reading (UK)
I think Nick - as usual - has summarised our feelings poignantly and simply. I have little to add, partly because I believe grief is a personal matter, and partly because Jo and I shared a similar existential (and atheist) take on life and the hereafter. My friendship with Jo - strangely, given that we met at work - was mostly personal rather than professional, built initially around a shared appreciation of jazz and books (I still have in my office some of his eclectic old books which I was to hold on to until he decided where he wanted to live. But I had the option of giving them to anyone who would appreciate them).
But I do want to add this. Jo also shared a healthy disdain for recognition, and I think instead of flowers, or prizes in his honour (or perhaps in addition to), I think he would appreciate that we each do what he liked to do, without any fanfare - Random Acts of Kindness to people in need of a helping hand. That was his signature, whether helping hapless students, feeding a hungry kid sitting by a traffic light, inventing jobs for people in need of money, providing a home for a stray dog, a place on a farm for an injured horse.
And perhaps next time you hear Django Reinhardt playing on the radio or Miles Davis (more plausibly), stop and remember Jo reading out Miles' autobiography over the air, to the considerable shock of the sensible people of the Cape!
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