Danila Tlisov, a member of the CMS collaboration at CERN, passed away on 14 April in Russia due to complications associated with COVID-19. He was just 36 years old.
Danila joined the INR Moscow group in 2010 as a young researcher after graduating with honours from Moscow State University and defending his dissertation. Following his contributions to early heavy-neutrino searches, he started to work on the CMS hadron calorimeter (HCAL) subsystem in 2012. Danila served as the hub of the multinational CMS HCAL upgrade effort, leading the CERN-based team that received individual components from India, Russia, Turkey and the US, and assembling them into a working detector. Danila recently brought his unique mix of strengths to the CMS HCAL management team as deputy project manager and a member of the CMS management.
In the physics analysis realm, Danila worked with the University of Rochester group on a measurement of the electroweak mixing angle using the forward–backward asymmetry in Drell–Yan events, where he focused on critical improvements to the calibration of the electron-energy measurements in challenging regions of Drell–Yan kinematic phase space.
CMS friends and colleagues remember fondly the warm smile and incredibly effective leadership of Danila. His practical know-how and excellent judgement were critical as we worked together through the tough challenges of a major detector upgrade.
Danila was an accomplished backcountry touring skier. Because of his great physical strength and focus on climbing, it was often said that he may have been faster going uphill than downhill, and that is saying a lot.
Among his many colleagues, Danila will be remembered for his pleasant, cheerful disposition, even during times of intense pressure. He challenged us with his brilliant ideas, guided students with patience and grace, and inspired us all. He will be sorely missed.
