This autumn, it was the fifth anniversary of the sudden death of our friend and colleague, Dr. Abdi Kazeroni. He passed away in the arms of his wife, after a sudden cardiac arrest on Saturday October 6, 2007 at the age of 47, in Compiègne, France.
Abdi was a memorable character. Born in Ispahan, Iran, he moved to the UK in 1982 where he obtained a B.Sc. in Pure Mathematics and a PGCE at the University of Sussex. He then decided to become a language teacher and started teaching EFL. He moved to France where he completed his doctoral dissertation on didactics under the supervision of Professor Jean-Paul Narcy-Combes in 1997. He was an excellent teacher and a relentless organizer of workshops and conferences. He organized 6 international conferences (UNTELE - the Use of New Technologies in Foreign Language) from 1997 to 2007 where he managed to bring researchers and teachers together from all over the world. Famous applied linguists like Claire Kramsch, Mike Long, Nick Ellis, Florence Myles, Rachel Giora were invited as plenary speakers. Abdi was gentle soul, an extremely generous and witty person who enjoyed nothing more than a good discussion over a good meal and lots of jokes.
He was married to Michèle Delabre with whom he had two children, Remi and Marie. Both children are doing well: Remi in his final year of engineering studies at the École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées, and Marie in her fourth year at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne.
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