Obituary: Vincent Hayward (1955-2023).

Abstract

On May 10th, 2023, the world lost a remarkable scientist and polymath, Vincent Hayward (1955–2023). His departure leaves a void in the scientific community, and we will deeply miss his intellectual brilliance, eclectic personality, profound humility, and legendary laughter. Vincent was a haptician, captivated by our ability to perceive the world through the sense of touch. His research was a unique blend of engineering, psychology, psychophysics, neuroscience, and philosophy, focused in large part on the perceptual skin and human behavior. Vincent’s academic journey began as an undergraduate at Ecole Centrale of Nantes in France, where he earned his engineering degree in 1978. Subsequently, he pursued his PhD at LIMSI (“Laboratoire d’informatique pour la mécanique et les sciences de l’ingénieur” in Orsay, France) in 1981, focusing on real-time optimization computer programs for robotics control. Afterward, he secured two positions at Purdue University in the United States, first as a Postdoctoral Fellow and later as a Visiting Assistant Professor (1981–1983), collaborating with Professor Richard P. Paul on developing the first control library for advanced industrial robots and exploring force feedback integration. In 1983, he returned to France as a Research Officer (Chargé de Recherches) at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, working on trajectory planning and spatial reasoning. In 1987, Vincent joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McGill University in Canada as an assistant, associate (1994), and then full professor (2006). From 2001 to 2004, he served as the Director of the McGill Center for Intelligent Machines. During his early years at McGill, his research centered on robot programming and control, 3-D imaging, computational geometry, spatial reasoning, computational architectures, and space and remote applications of robotics and telerobotics. His interests shifted, between 1992 and 1999, from robotics to the sense of touch, leading him to delve deeply into multidisciplinary research by integrating biology, psychophysics, neuroscience, philosophy, and design. At McGill University, Vincent earned international recognition for his groundbreaking work in robotics and haptics. In 2008, Vincent returned to France, where he held an international chair at ISIR (“Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique” in Paris) linked to the Pierre and Marie Curie University. He became one of the first French recipients of the European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant in 2009, followed by the prestigious ERC Proof of Concept Grant in 2014. Supported by a Leverhulme Trust fellowship, Vincent took a leave of absence between 2017 and 2018 to serve as a Professor of Tactile Perception and Technology at the School of Advanced Studies, University of London, UK. Simultaneously, Vincent cofounded Actronika, a Paris-based start-up dedicated to haptic technology. From 2016, he was passionately investing his time in the company’s development. Obituary