Louis Lliboutry (born 19 February 1922 in Madrid; died on 21 October 2007 in Grenoble) was a French glaciologist, geophysicist, and mountaineer. While in Chile in the early 1950s, he analysed and explained the formation of snow penitents in the Andes, which marked his first contribution to glaciology. He founded in Grenoble in 1958 the Laboratory of Alpine Glaciology and headed it for 25 years; he also set up at that period a pioneering syllabus in geophysics. His contributions to mechanics of viscous media (such as ice and the Earth’s mantle) and to geodynamics are internationally acknowledged.

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Louis Lliboutry has strongly contributed to the subject of friction at the base of glacier during his whole career (see here). Both experimental and theoretical/numerical works that will be conducted in the framework of the SAUSSURE project are strongly inspired by his previous contributions. This is then normal that the spirit of Louis Lliboutry is part of team!