In 1824 Karl Caesar von Leonhard defined Loess in volume 3 of his great work : Charakterstik der Felsarten. That was a beginning for loess studies. 1999 was just about the 175th anniversary of that remarkable loessic event and a conference was held to mark the occasion. It was held in Heidelberg and Bonn and was the largest and most ambitious Loess conference ever attempted. It was organised by Edward Derbyshire, Ian Smalley & Ludwig Zoeller.
ED made enormous efforts to raise funding so that distant scholars could attend, and as a result there were loessic contributions from far and wide; it was a truly international meeting and the conference part, in Bonn, was beautifully housed and organised. IS was secretary of the INQUA Loess Commision at that time and had access to a small amount of INQUA funding. ED suggested that this funding should support an applicant from Serbia who deserved some assistance- so INQUA support was provided. This applicant was of course Slobodan. Many years later ED was heard to observe that ' never had INQUA funds been better deployed' it might be claimed that loess scholarship took a great step forward (or similar extravagant claims may be made). SM participated in the 1999 INQUA LoessFest; it was a memorable occasion..
