Our colleague and friend Niilo Saranummi passed away in Autumn 2018. Niilo made a great contribution in the field of Biomedical Engineering and ICT for Health in the European level and globally. He made his professional career in the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, with strong involvement with R&D projects funded by the European Union. He was serving the BME community as president of IFMBE, IUPESM, EAMBES and IAMBE. He was the key person in the establishment of EAMBES, leading an ad hoc committee looking for the possibilities of establishing a European umbrella organization for the European medical & biological engineering community. This process resulted in the foundation of EAMBES in 2003, and Niilo was nominated as the first president of EAMBES. He was fellow of EAMBES, IAMBE, AIMBE, IEEE, HL7 and Finnish Academies of Technology. He was also recipient of the Otto Schmitt Award.
We remember and miss his warmth, open-mindedness and exceptional ability to motivate people to work together. He gave his full commitment to serve the BME community at the European level, and globally. His memory will remain in our minds.
