Claude Roulet

With great sadness we announce the passing of Claude Roulet. He had been fighting cancer for 2 years with very little chance of winning the battle as surgery was not an option. He was weakened by all the treatments but tried to enjoy life as much as possible between the hospital stays at MDAnderson Cancer Center-Houston. Everyday, weather permitting, he had a short walk in one of the pretty places around home, he loved to meet his friends or talk through Skype with those who were too far away, he participated in as many family events as possible and even discovered some unknown destinations not too far from home. This was all a priority to him. Claude was born on July, 13, 1945 in La Chatre (France), just after the war. This was a difficult time in France, his father who had been a Resistance Fighter came back home transformed and this resulted in his parents’ divorce. In spite of a moving to Paris, a new family life and a new little brother Michel, he went back to La Chatre at each vacation to stay with his grand-mother who loved him so much. There, his uncle, a car dealer gave him the taste for beautiful cars and mechanics. His aunt and his cousins helped him enjoy the mountains in winter and skiing, he also learned how to waterski with them. From that time, he developed a taste for a harmonious life with lots of space for sports, friendship and sharing. At the same time his mother made him appreciate how knowledge, rigorous thinking, satisfaction in a task well done could bring success. He became a bright student and was admitted at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Saint Cloud near Paris. He met Annie, also a physicist at the Ecole Normale Superieure, and they married on August, 31 1970. His research in Nuclear Physics at the University of Orsay led him to a Doctorate, then to a postdoc year at the University of Berkeley. With Sophie, born in 1974, and Christophe, born in 1976, this stay in the United States was eye opening and the desire to be back in the country one day originated at that time. In 1980, the opportunity came to join Schlumberger as the company was looking for a specialist in Nuclear Physics. Things moved fast after that as his will to go to the bottom of things and to deliver quality products was noticed and he was sent to Houston in 1986 to manage a joint venture Schlumberger-Anadrill. He had to build a team and create tools that could perform “logging while drilling”. The task was difficult but he was really successful. Back in Europe, he embraced the transition 2D-3D for Geco-Prakla in all seismic fields: data collection, data processing and interpretation. This led to the idea and realization of a new family of sensors and recording devices for seismic exploration on land and in the sea. He was then appointed to European affairs where he developed a totally different type of talent to federate competences in about twenty different countries to result in common projects by public and private actors in fields related to energy. In parallel he began to define guidelines for the future, so Schlumberger could grow in the field of CO2 capture and sequestration, in the hydrogen business, in the management of aquifers. These are at the core of Schlumberger’s strategy nowadays. During all his career, Claude has been respected by his bosses, his peers, his teams and his secretaries and has formed a real network of friends along the way. Then it was time for retirement : a time for many travels around the world, a time to see friends as often as possible, a time to make the mill house better. This property acquired in Sarlat (Perigord) in 1995 was his dream of a family retreat loved by all. As a matter of fact, every Summer after the birth of his grand-children, Derrick and Morgan the Americans in 2002 and 2005, Arthur and Lucie the French in 2008 and 2010, it became the gathering place for the cousins who lived far apart from each other. They had great pleasure in these encounters, playing and doing sports together, visiting places and even traveling far sometimes with Claude and Annie. The USA and the house on Conroe lake have also always been very dear to him, it was his permanent residence. Destiny has chosen for his life to come to an end here.

Claude Roulet

July 13, 1945 - July 31, 2023