On June 3rd, 2006, it will be 60 years ago Bernard Jones was born in the Northern French city of Arras (correct - Dutch - name: Atrecht ...). He is married to Janet Jones, with whom he directs their company Astraguard. At present he is living with Janet in Sevenoaks (south of London, in Kent), which keeps on functioning as the real "home" for their children Michael, Katherine, Stephen and Alexander. Bernard J.T. Jones Groningen, December 2, 2005 "from Strings to Cosmic Web" (photo: J. Peacock) For many cosmologists and astrophysicists Bernard Jones has been playing a key role in their scientific career. Either as student, postdoc, colleague, friend and/or supervisor he has been influencing and affecting many with his enormous enthusiasm, encouragement and knowledge of astrophysics, cosmology and computer science. On the basis of this influence he has created a large circle of "scientific children" and friends throughout the scientific world. This has instigated the organization of a tribute conference on cosmology, galaxy formation and star formation to celebrate his 60th birthday, out of gratitude and appreciation for the large role he has played for so many ... During his scientific career he has been responsible for a variety of essential contributions to our understanding of the Universe. He has been one of the first to systematically address the question of the formation of galaxies. His 1976 Rev. Mod. Phys. review on Galaxy Formation still stands as a landmark in putting the issue at the forefront of cosmology. Meanwhile his contributions range from the cosmic microwave background, a large number of issues in cosmic structure formation to the topic of the role of turbulence in the formation of stars. Substantial interest concerned the issue of scaling in physical systems, particularly in the context of the clustering of galaxies, in an attempt to understand the process of nonlinear gravitational cosmic structure formation. Besides his theoretical interests he has been involved in various observational campaigns. Together with Janet he was responsible for one of the very first systematic, statistical, surveys of a cluster in the optical regime. In 1977 they analyzed the Fornax cluster galaxy population in order to probe various ideas on galaxy luminosity functions. More than a decade later he was involved with the ENACS survey, an ESO key program for studying a large sample of clusters of galaxies. In addition, he has been instrumental in demonstrating the potential economic benefits of applied astrophysical knowledge through the activities and success of the company founded by him and Janet, Astraguard. Bernard Jones started his career as a graduate student in Cambridge, working with Dennis Sciama and Martin Rees. Afterwards he worked as a postdoc with Jim Peebles in Princeton and with Joe Silk in Berkeley, before returning to England in 1975. From 1975-1981 he was connected as faculty member at the Institute for Astronomy in Cambridge, Golden Years of Cosmology in Cambridge. In 1981 he left for mainland of Europe, first spending two years at the Observatoire de Meudon in Paris, France, before moving to NORDITA in Copenhagen, Denmark. In the ensuing years he spent sabbatical periods at Leiden Observatory (Leiden, the Netherlands), the Astronomy Centre (Brighton, Sussex) and Imperial College (London, England). Together with some colleagues he managed to set up the Theoretical Astrophysics Centre in Copenhagen and starting from 1996 he has been concentrating largely on his England based company Astraguard. Since 2004 he is formally attached to the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in Groningen, the Netherlands. Given this unique truely European background, he may be genuinely regarded as a father of European cosmology !!!

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