From www.astrology-and-science.com         Click here for home page or fast-find index

Francoise Gauquelin 1929-2007
Two tributes with pictures

Suitbert Ertel and Geoffrey Dean

Expanded versions of two tributes that originally appeared in Correlation in 2008.

Abstract -- Francoise Gauquelin (1929-2007), former wife of Michel Gauquelin, shared his vigour, his insistence on adequate data and tests, and his readiness to abandon wishful thinking in the light of empirical findings. These tributes by two of her collaborative researchers cover her joint work with Michel on planetary and heredity effects, her successful journal Astro-Psychological Problems and other publications, CORA, French skeptics, RAMS, and her solo work on heredity, character traits, aspects, and matching tests. She showed how determination and the scientific spirit can prevail over the challenges posed by astrology. If she saw further than most it was not because she stood on the shoulders of giants but because, like Michel, she stood on the shoulders of data. In various letters she said: "For me, your contradictory results are not shocking ... Affect and feelings must be ignored ... Search facts by objective methods is more valuable than theory". With Francoise's final passing we have lost an extraordinary contributor to the Gauquelin period of astro-psychological research.