Obituary: Rui Telmo Nobre

Mr Rui Telmo Nobre, who sadly passed away in November 2019, was the Director of the Thermodynamic Department at ISQ Portugal. ISQ (Instituto de Soldadura e Qualidade), corporate member of the IIR, is an international consulting firm with head office in Lisbon. Telmo was educated at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon and started to work for ISQ in 1988, his tenure being over 31 years.

Though based in Lisbon, Telmo was also in charge of the ISQ test facility in Castelo Branco some 240km from his home to which he travelled weekly to, usually on his motorbike!

The Castello Branco facility has a specific Test Laboratory to perform ATP testing for the international certification for special equipment for carriage of perishable foodstuff under controlled temperature. Telmo was head of ATP for Portugal and was one of the leading experts in the field. The laboratory also had other complex equipment for vibration and finite element testing of aircraft wings which Telmo introduced as a diversification.

In 2005 Telmo was elected by a delegate vote to be chairman of WP11 (Working Party 11) which meets annually in Geneva Switzerland to discuss and amend the UN ATP agreement. He also regularly attended the IIR Sub-Commission D2 CERTE on Test Stations annual meetings. For 13 years he skilfully guided the annual meeting through the various international and legal hurdles.

Without doubt, Telmo’s wisdom and experience will be greatly missed but we can recognise his many achievements.

This text was prepared thanks to Richard Lawton, President of IIR Section D on Storage and Transport.