Nelly Kieffer passed away on August 3, 2021. She was professor for biology at the University of Luxembourg and its Faculty of Science, Technology, and Communication until 2007.
Nelly was a pioneer for the biomedical research in Luxembourg. After spending years in France and the United States, she returned to Luxembourg in 1992. With the position of a “CNRS research director”, she founded the “Laboratoire Franco-Luxembourgeois de Recherche Biomédicale”, a lab co-financed by the CNRS and Luxembourg. When the University was established in 2003, her research team became part of the “Laboratoire de Biologie et Physiologie Intégrée” and, 3 years later, of the newly established Life Sciences Research Unit.
Nelly was internationally recognized for her expertise in hematology. Her research interests were in particular blood platelets and cell adhesion molecules called integrins. Her research team applied and implemented modern technologies in biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology.
She left our University in 2007 to build up another CNRS-linked laboratory in Shanghai which she led until her retirement in 2012.
Those who have met Nelly were impressed by her extraordinary personality, her energetic and pragmatic approaches. She was an enthusiastic and rigorous scientist full of initiative. Nelly Kieffer has significantly marked the biomedical research landscape in this country; numerous former PhD students and post-docs who worked under her supervision are still active in research within Luxembourg.
We deeply regret to hear that Nelly has passed away, after a long fight against cancer. Our thoughts are with her family.