The ECCAI board has been saddened and shocked by the news that Rob Milne died on Mount Everest on Sunday, 5th June 2005.

Rob was one of the early pioneers in AI applications. He founded Intelligent Applications Ltd and became successful with his TIGER system. Rob was president of ECCAI from 2000 to 2004. He acted as Local Chair for IJCAI'05 in Edinburgh and he was designated Conference Chair of ECAI'06 in Riva del Garda.

Rob was an experienced mountaineer. The Everest was his last challenge after having climbed the highest peaks on each continent.

In remembrance of Rob here are two of his messages:
(ECCAI Bulletin Jan 2003)
From the summit of Aconcagua, (6968m) in Argentina, ECCAI President Rob Milne wishes all members of ECCAI member societies a very Happy New Year. Work in the field of Artificial Intelligence is never easy, but like climbing a big mountain, progress is made one step at a time and eventually one reaches the goal!
(ECCAI Bulletin Jan 2004)
Greetings to all members of the AI Community from the top of Vinson Massif (4968m), the highest point on the Antarctica continent. With 24 hour daylight it isn't that cold here! The deadline for the submission of papers to ECAI-04 is fast approaching. We expect this years conference to be the biggest and best yet, so polish off that paper and start making plans to attend. see you in Valencia!

ECCAI has lost a good friend.

Our thoughts are with his family.

Werner Horn
ECCAI chair

Rob's blog: http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/everest/