Tribute to Chantal Cases

It is with great sadness and emotion that we learned the death of Chantal Cases, who headed INED from 2009 to 2015.

When Chantal took over as INED director she was immediately confronted with the substantial challenge of strengthening INED’s reputation and presence as the most important demography institute in Europe while maintaining its strong traditional ties with French public statistics and initiating preparations for the Institute’s move to Campus Condorcet. She quickly launched a dynamic for modernizing the Institute, and gradually, through multiple initiatives, bolstered INED’s position as a major demographic research actor in France.

Chantal had a vision for INED and her intervention has profoundly influenced and shaped our Institute. Throughout her term of service she worked tirelessly to diffuse and promote research while taking full account of the many, diverse changes in the research landscape, including new project funding modes and processes, developments in information technology, new regulations. She firmly and dauntlessly defended the interests and stature of INED on both the national and international levels, and the Institute’s accomplishments during her tenure were many.

To achieve this end, Chantal drew on her exceptional energy and stamina, together with her detailed knowledge of inter-institutional relations and networks. Meanwhile, her personal qualities were appreciated by all. She was cheerful, warm, humane, straightforward. With modesty and steady goodwill, she worked to resolve tensions and bring about consensus; she had a genuine talent for negotiation, inherited from her union involvement. Chantal was also strongly empathetic, and in the stressful moments and calamities that arose during her term she always found ways of supporting and comforting those most directly involved.  

Chantal had many friends among her colleagues, and we are particularly affected by her passing. Our thoughts go out to her husband, her children, and her grandchildren. We share in their pain and our hearts are with them. 

July 2023