It is with profound sadness that we inform you of the death of our colleague, Nicolas Auray. Nicolas started his career as a researcher in our department in 2001, and had joined the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis in September, as a Professor of Sociology. From his PhD thesis on the hacker movement to his work on “Le Hacker, l’État et la politique. Une enquête sur les institutions”, for his accreditation to supervise research, Nicolas was always a brilliant researcher, combining intellectual creativity and scientific rigour, defending a sociology that asserts itself as such while opening up to other disciplines through new objects of study (video games, Wikipedia, piracy, spam, etc.). His publications, many in journals that have shaped intellectual debate in France, can be found alongside some great names of the humanities and social sciences, once again attesting to his status and qualities as a researcher. But we have also lost an endearing colleague, who was respectful of others and full of humour. To Nicolas, our colleague and friend.