Several chapters in this book present various aspects of Michel Henon's
scientific acheivements that spread over a large range of subjects, and yet
managed to make deep contributions to most of them. The authors of these
chapters make a much better job at demonstrating the big advancements that
Michel Henon allowed in these fields than I could ever do. Here I rather
present some facets of his personnality that most appealed to me. Michel Henon
was a reserved person, almost shy, so it was not obvious for a young student to
grasp the profoundness of his insight and what a marvelous advisor he could be.
The two most prominent aspects of his mind, in my view, were his ability to
simplify any scientific question to its core complexity, and to find the fun
and amusing part in his everyday work, even in the tiniest details of his
scientific investigations.Comment: Invited talk at the "hommage a Michel Henon" conference held at the
"Institut Henri Poincare" Paris, GRAVASCO trimestre, autumn 2013. Proceeding
by Hermann Press, editors: Jean-Michel Alimi, Roya Mohayaee, Jerome Perez.
Videos of all talks are available at:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9kd4mpdvWcBLrN8u04IZW6-akNgLG7-