This biography of Hans Cottier is based on almost 30 years of personal memories, reconstructed with help from Hans' old students Jean Laissue and Thomas Schaffner, who succeeded him as Directors of the Institute of Pathology in Bern University, Dan Slatkin, a collaborator from his days at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and his nephew, Paul Cottier.
Professor Hans Cottier (Hane, to his many friends) was a man of wide culture, from history to art, from music to cinema, so much so that one sometimes felt inadequate in comparison to him.
His studies were mainly of cellular kinetics and led him to organize an extremely important immunopathology conference in 1966, the proceedings of which (''Germinal Centers in Immune Responses'') represented a fundamental advance in understanding the role of lymphoid organs in immune response. Another result of his experiences was the development of collaborative projects between scientists from Brookhaven, where he worked from 1960 to 1963, and from the Institute of Pathology in Bern, that continue to this day. In fact, over the next decades he was occupied with the management of the Institute of Pathology in Bern, which, under his guidance, became an outstanding center for research, teaching, and clinical diagnosis. His achievements at this time were commensurate with his self-sacrifice. Not only did he build up a wealth of some 250 PubMed-cited reports, but also in 1970 he began the daunting task of writing a treatise on the origin and development of diseases, the ''Pathogenese'', being among the first to integrate knowledge from a variety of biological disciplines (such as biochemistry and immunology) into explanations of pathogenesis. His scientific rigor was a model for all of us, especially the youngest, to whom he communicated and affirmed his seriousness almost light-heartedly, through stories that may have been real or may have been jokes-breaks in a life of daily commitment to work.
In 1980, joint scientific projects started between Bern and Siena, setting up a School of Pathology in Siena with Hans Cottier as the only, unsurpassable, teacher and many young doctors from Siena who trained following his inimitable example. Hans' ''Siena Years'' really took off when he retired from the Institute of Pathology in Bern. He stayed at the Certosa di Pontignano just outside the city for a few months every year, many years in a row, where we enjoyed unforgettable evenings with him, always marvelling at his way of being master of his art, becoming accustomed to his genius, even when he taught genetics and molecular biology with inexpressible refinement and competence. The University of Siena awarded him a laurea honoris causa in medicine, which he accepted with joy, despite his aversion to ceremonies, due to his love for Siena.
We miss Hane sorely, but it is some consolation that though poorer for his absence, we are blessed by being much richer for his legacy.