[visionlist] Andrei Gorea has passed away

[Mark Wexler]

Andrei's friends, and the members of the Laboratoire Psychologie de la
Perception, with great sadness announce the death of Andrei Gorea, from
stomach cancer, on January 7, 2019, aged 66 years.

After school in Romania Andrei moved to Israel in 1971, where he studied
psychology as an undergraduate. He then moved to Paris where he got a
master’s degree in clinical psychology and then a master’s and PhD in
experimental psychology. He obtained a permanent position with the Centre
National de Recherche Scientifique at the Laboratoire de Psychologie
Expérimentale of Paris V University in 1978.

In 2006 Andrei was instrumental in transferring the lab to the biomedical
department of Paris Descartes University at the Centre Universitaire des
Saints Pères, where collaboration with neurophysiology and other sciences
was facilitated. As associate director till 2013 and then director of the
new lab, the Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, until 2018, Andrei
worked tirelessly to attract talented scientists to join the lab and make
it a center of excellence.

Andrei travelled extensively, establishing what were to become long-lasting
contacts with well-known scientists. Amongst the people he encountered in
these travels were Janus Kulikowski in Manchester, UK, Adriana Fiorentini
in Pisa, Italy, Christopher Tyler in San Francisco, USA, Patrick Cavanagh
in Montréal, Canada, Bela Julesz and Thomas Papathomas at Bell Labs in
Murray Hill, USA, and Dov Sagi at the Weizmann, Israel. In 1990 and 2003,
he very successfully organised the European Conference on Visual Perception
in Paris. He edited the influential book “Representations of Vision” based
on the 1990 ECVP conference.

He was highly skilled in psychophysics and always eager to provide advice
and intellectual stimulation in matters of experimental design and
fundamental philosophical interest in the psychology of vision. He
contributed important papers on the perception of motion and time,
awareness and decision, and relations between perception and action. One of
his landmark contributions was the demonstration that humans fail to
entertain multiple decision criteria simultaneously when stimuli vary in
visibility (publication with Dov Sagi in 2000).

He was very interested and knowledgeable in art and literature, and could
be seen every morning arriving at the lab with a detective novel in hand.
His apartment had beautiful furniture and paintings, and plants that he
took great care of.  He was a good cook and a lover of the USA: he made a
point of going to the Visual Science Society conference whenever he could.

Andrei lived his life according to his own strict principles, and he never
feared to express his point of view even when it went against the grain. He
could be abrupt and undiplomatic, but despite appearances he was an
affectionate friend with an incredible sensitivity for human relations.

Despite his illness, in his last months he attempted to enjoy life as much
as possible, and seemed to perfectly accept his condition.

He will be missed.

(If you have any photos of Andrei that you would like to share, please post
them here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HXc3iLKdx4Yz6o6v5)
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