当時、僕は貯水池容量と利用水量との関係を研究していたが、水文及び水資源分野の最高峰である「Water Resources Research」での膨大な論文を６４年発行時点から読み漁っていた。
当時は最適化手法の最盛期で、
コーネル大のラウス教授
ジョンズホプキンス大のコーエン教授
カナダ環境省水文研究所のクレメシュ博士
ビスワス教授
など、天才が多く彼らは常連だった。
ＲＥＣＳの社長である橋本さんも新進気鋭の学者で、貯水池運用の信頼性など彼のドクター論文が登場したりもしていた。
中でも、カナダに６８年亡命したチェコ人のクレメシュ博士の論文は、実務家である小生にとって最も信頼すべき論文を数多く提供してくれた。
数年後、ある貯水池運用の最適化問題のプログラムのことでクレメシュ氏と交流することになった。以来、２００９年５月まで文通する関係が続いていた。最近は年に一度は出張先からメールを出し近況を伝えていた。
サラリーマンを辞めたわけだし、いつでもカナダ・ヴィクトリアの彼の家を訪問するチャンスはあったのだが、０９年４月以降現在までアフリカ出張が続きカナダでの再会は果たせなかった。
今日、久々彼の最近の業績を探したが、偶然彼の死去を知ることになった。
昨年２０１０年３月８日に亡くなられた。
彼の論文に出会わなければ現在の自分はないと思うほど、彼の論文やお人柄から強い影響を受けたことは間違いない。このブログでも何回か書いたかもしれないが、水文家というより哲学者であった。
孤高の研究者で、大学で教えることには全く興味のない方だった。だからと云って、偏屈ではなく大変穏やかでお優しい方でもあった。学問的にはかなり厳しい方で、自分で課題を見つけられない者の甘えは許されない。ＣＳＵの学部長候補にもなったが、断った逸話がある。
先ほど、ヴィクトリアの奥様にお悔やみのメールを差し上げた。８８年ご夫婦が東京に来られ再会し、うちの奥さんがクレメシュの奥様、そして僕がクレメシュさんに付き添った数日のことが懐かしい。
彼の経歴や業績はウィキペディアより下記に示す。
Vit KlemesFrom Wikipedia
Vit Klemes (30 April 1932 – 8 March 2010) was a Canadian hydrologist of Czech origin. He received a Civil Engineering degree (Ing) from the Technical University in Brno (Moravia), a CSc degree (a local equivalent of PhD) in hydrology and water resources from the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava (Slovakia) and a DrSc degree from the Czech Technical University in Prague (Bohemia).
Following the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, Klemes and his family came to Canada in September 1968. There he obtained a position of associate professor at the University of Toronto, first in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and later in the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. In 1972 he was appointed research hydrologist at the National Hydrology Research Institute of Environment Canada, a position he held for 17 years; after the institute's move from Ottawa to Saskatoon, he also served as its chief scientist. From 1990 to 1999 he was a water resources consultant in Victoria, British Columbia where he continued to live after his retirement until his death.
During his career Klemes has authored about 150 scientific and technical publications, lectured extensively on all five continents, was visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Monash University in Melbourne, Agricultural University (BOKU) in Vienna, the University of Karlsruhe, and in 1994 was appointed Invited Professor at Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique of Universite du Quebec.
In 1987 he was elected President of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) and his work has been recognized by a number of awards; among other, he received a Gold Medal from the Slovak Academy of Sciences (1993), the International Hydrology Prize from the IAHS (1994), the Ray K. Linsley Award from the American Institute of Hydrology (1995) and the Ven Te Chow Award from the American Society of Civil Engineering (1998)
８７年彼が会長を務めたＩＡＨＳには、下記の通り多くのお悔やみのメッセージが届いている。
I recall that Vit was chair at my first international conference presentation at the Vancouver IUGG. His reputation scared me to pieces but he made me feel very welcome as a newcomer to the conference game. A good many academics I'm sure made use of his more provocative papers to stimulate class discussions on what hydrology was all about. I know I did.
Earl Bardsley, New Zealand
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Tribute to Vit Klemeš: This news comes as a shock to me, including the fact we only get to know this now more than a month after Vit's passing. The only consolation is that I had I visited Vit Klemeš at his home in Victoria Island last summer, and spent a few hours with him and his family (wife and son). They were extremely hospitable, and we had a wonderful conversation over wine and lunch. Vit himself picked me up from the ferry station, and since he was too tired in the afternoon, his son dropped me off at the ferry station. Vit did indicate to me that he has had treatment for prostate cancer, but that he was in remission (so I thought, and hence the shock in hearing that he passed away so soon after). Through his writings, Vit has been a long-time hero of mine. I started an e-mail contact with him a few years ago, sought him for advice on some papers (especially the work I did on the downward approach to modeling, motivated by his 1983 Journal of Hydrology paper). I finally met him at the IAHS Congress in Perugia. His papers are a pleasure to read - especially papers of a philosophical kind: he had a knack for communicating unpalatable truths in a style that is sharp and direct, and yet does not raise rancor. Many people continued to do the kinds of things he deplored, even while quoting him along the way. Vit Klemeš will be remembered for a long time through his writings, which will remain his timeless legacy. Rest in Peace.
M. Sivapalan, Champaign, Illinois
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I wish to express my sincere sadness for the loss of Prof. Vit Klemeš. I had the opportunity to meet Vit only once, in Perugia in 2007, and I was deeply impressed by his personality. I learned a lot from his great papers. His contributions on the Hurst effect are masterpieces and I particularly liked his writing style. It was a honour for me to meet him in Perugia, where I could recognise his style and his attitude. He was a great scientist and I am sure his contributions will guide young hydrologists for tens of years to come. Rest in peace.
Alberto Montanari, President, Hydrological Sciences Division - EGU
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I was sorry to hear of the irretrievable loss for all hydrological community
Alexander Gelfan, Russian Academy of Sciences,Moscow, Russia
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By losing Vit Klemeš, we not only lose a colleague, friend or mentor, we lose a hydrologist with a unique sense of humor. His 1988 paper entitled “A hydrological perspective” is truly a masterpiece: there, he adapted to hydrology the radio Yerevan riddles, used in the former Soviet Union as a way to criticize the inner contradictions of the Soviet system. He used their stereotypic format – which always starts with an inquiry to radio Yerevan and continue with an answer starting with “In principle yes, but...” to end up by deconstructing the meaning of the affirmative answer. Here is how Klemeš summarized the contradictions of hydrological science:
Question to radio Yerevan: “Is it true that hydrologists are the scientists who study the relationships within the water cycle ?”
Answer by radio Yerevan: “In principle yes, but they are not scientists - they are technologists; and they don't study them - they fudge them.”
Vit Klemeš had told that he had decided not to interfere with the hydrology of the 21st century. On special request, he would agree to leave his silence and provide some advices. Last year, he answered some questions we had asked concerning the use of the series of model evaluation tests he had recommended. He was sceptical about the capacity of hydrologists to test rigorously their models, considering that the tests he had suggested "will be avoided under whatever excuses available because modellers, especially those who want to ’market’ their products, know only too well that they would not pass it. […] I had no illusions in this regard when I wrote my paper, but the logic of modelling led me to develop the 'testing principle' to its, let’s say, 'theoretical limit'." We miss him already. Let earth be light to him.
Vazken Andréassian, Charles Perrin, Cemagref, Antony, France
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I offer three anecdotes that illustrate Vit's very special approach to problems:
- Back in the 1970s, I was supervising a very earnest PhD student in Australia who was developing a new approach to optimising reservoir operation under uncertainly. I suggested that he seek Vit's advice. He was devastated when Vit referred him to a series of papers, published in Russian in the USSR but unknown in the "West", that had provided a theoretical solution to the problem many years previously. The student obtained the papers with much difficulty and had them translated. He then went back to Vit to explain that the solution did not work for the case he had defined and Vit entered into extensive correspondence with him which inspired him to re-start his work and complete an excellent thesis.
- I still consider that the talk given by Vit at the General Assembly of IAHS in Perugia in July 2007 was one of his best - simple, witty and yet profound in its challenge to the practicing engineer and scientist. I suggest that it be linked from the announcement of his passing that you have put on the home page of our web site.
- Vit did me the honour of giving me a copy of his book "An Imperfect Fit" and this led to a long exchange of messages that finished only three weeks before his death when it was clear that he was seriously ill. Even then he was as incisive as ever, protesting publicly at what he saw as injustices in actions taken by government authorities, telling more tales of stacking wood at his country cottage with a warning against allowing pure mathematicians to assist in the task, and extolling the virtues of serving a Moravian white with Pacific wild salmon - "I prepare them in what I call 'Moravian style'".
Requiem in pacem.
Arthur Askew, IAHS Past-President, Geneva, Switzerland
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I knew Vit Klemeš very well when employed by the Inland Waters Directorate of Environment Canada during the 1970s and ‘80s. In fact we both joined the Department in 1972 – but Vit joined as a much more senior scientist than I. Like other junior scientists I watched in awe as Vit produced the papers that had so much influence within Canada and internationally. In 1988 I had the particular pleasure of travelling with Vit to a conference in the Tatra Mountains of his home country; this proved to be diplomatically challenging as Vit had to be given a special visa to allow him entry without prosecution! Vit will be remembered not only as an eminent hydrologist but also as a modest and very caring human being. He will be sorely missed.
Gordon Young, President, IAHS
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I was saddened to hear the news about Vit Klemeš'decease. Please, accept my sympathy to his relatives and colleagues. In sympathy.
Prof. Vladimir Boynagryan, Armenia
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I wish to say a few words about Vit Klemeš as an admirer of his who had the good fortune to meet him in person and the honour to exchange ideas and thoughts with him in the last few years. My relationship with Vit started in 2003 with his caustic letter complaining about my misquotation of his “Hurst” paper. His paper was attached to the letter with some annotations, including a dedication “to Dr. Koutsoyiannis without compliments”. So, the first thing I remember about Vit is his frank, unfeigned, clear-cut -- and thus friendly -- writing, also suggestive of the importance of scientific disagreement and discussion. Vit’s sweet personality, noble soul and kind manner on the one hand, and his profound scientific knowledge and powerful reasoning on the other, made disagreeing with him a fascinating and entertaining experience, a lesson in the importance of understanding the other’s position, and a demonstration of the power and usefulness of dialogue in scientific affairs. Vit’s involvement in science went far beyond hydrology. He had an informed opinion about broad scientific and philosophical issues. He even wrote an essay about the Special Relativity theory, entitled “Asymmetric Aging or Asymmetric Reasoning?”, as well as a note on the formation and historical evolution of cart tracks. In addition to being a scientist and engineer, Vit was a conscious and active citizen of the world, having strong positions on all contemporary political, economic and even religious affairs and problems. His recent book, entitled “An Imperfect Fit: Advanced Democracy and Human Nature”, is one of the testimonies of his activity of this type. Vit Klemeš was, thus, an unusual and unorthodox personality resembling more an ancient philosopher than a specialized modern scientist. Some of his works were recently published collectively in a book with the manifest title “Common Sense and Other Heresies”. We hydrologists will certainly remember him as we keep reading his monumental papers. I wish that we also try to follow his approach to use common sense, to dare be heretic, and to mimic his caustic and humourist attitude.
Demetris Koutsoyiannis, HSJ Co-Editor, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
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My sincere condolences and sympathy, I was just alerted of this sad loss...I never had the honour of meeting him but he has undoubtedly influenced my professional life to say the least. Just wanted to briefly share my feeling of admiration for Prof. Klemeš, and I mean professor in the broadest sense. His thoughts have illuminated my way since my PhD in Wisconsin, my faculty jobs in Chile and now UK, helping my critical thinking and motivations to unravel new paths. Particularly at crossroads, reading his work and thorough judgement I want to believe has improved my teaching and my research. It has. I will continue to pass on his treasures on to my students in my own limited way, yet his publications will maintain me less biased I hope ! Kind regards, Alejandro
Alejandro R. Dussaillant J.., PhD, University of Greenwich, UK
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Some conferences by Vit Klemeš
Klemeš, V., Some Thoughts About Stochastic Hydrologic Modeling Inspired by the Canadian Wilderness,
Advanced Modeling Concepts for Environmental Sciences, University of California, Davis (CA), April 1995.
Klemeš, V., Geophysical Time Series and Climatic Change - A Skeptic's View,
Geophysical Time Series Workshop, National Hydrology Research Centre, Environment Canada, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, October 1988.
Klemeš, V., There is more to the Vltava River than its 175-year long streamflow record,
(Distinguished Speakers Luncheon Lecture), 20th Anniversary and Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Hydrology "Hydrologic Science: Challenges for the 21th Century", Bloomington, Minnesota, 2001.
Klemeš, V., 20 years later : What has changed – and what hasn’t,
Association Lecture presented in the first plenary of the IAHS General Assembly in Perugia, 9 July 2007.
Klemeš, V., An unorthodox physically-based stochastic treatment of tree rings: Some practical lessons learned from a 40-year involvement in stochastic hydrology,
(A talk given on July 12, 2007, in the HW2003 Workshop on Analysis of Variability in Hydrological Data Series, at the IAHS General Assembly in Perugia, Italy).
Klemeš, V., Political pressures in water resources management : Do they influence predictions ?,
International Interdisciplinary Conference on Predictions for Hydrology, Ecology, and Water Resources Management, Prague, 2008.
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17 MAY 2010
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