Andreas was the first postdoc in my lab and instrumental in everything we have achieved. He passed away a bit over a year ago in a traffic accident. It was very untimely. There is something wrong when a funeral has both the deceased’s mother and daughter attending… Sandy Schmidt, the head of the department he worked in as an assistant prof. after leaving our lab, is organizing a memorial fund to support student travel to conferences. Obviously, this won’t be happening right away with the COVID-19 outbreak. But, this outbreak will eventually end, and supporting Ph.D. student travel to conferences is a worthy cause… I sincerely doubt we can replace real human interactions with Twitter or Facebook. I think the evidence is already in with respect to that question. So, if you have the time, write a check and mail it to the fund as I just did. I’ve posted Sandy’s email with the description of how to do so below.
Warmest regards,
Jan
Dear Colleagues:
I have initiated the establishment of the above-named endowment in honor of the memory of Andreas Doncic. Funds distributed from the endowment shall be used to support the travel and/or meeting related expenses to enable postdoctoral or graduate students in the Department of Cell Biology or the Green Center for Systems Biology to present their research at professional conferences and scientific meetings in accordance with the Rules and Regulations and applicable policies of the Board. The award of available funds will be determined by the Chair of the Department of Cell Biology in consultation with the Director of the Green Center for Systems Biology based on scientific excellence and need.
Thanks to generous contribution pledges from Gaudenz Danuser and Rama Ranganathan, we are 70% along the way to obtaining the $20,000 minimum needed to establish this endowment at UT Southwestern. I am hoping to reach (or exceed) our goal before I leave at the end of May.
If you are willing to contribute, and any amount is welcome, then checks should be made out to UT Southwestern Medical Center with an attached note that directs the gift to the Andreas Doncic Memorial Travel Award. Checks should be mailed directly to:
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Office of Development
P.O. Box 910888
Dallas, TX 75391-0888
Please feel free to forward this announcement on to any other colleagues you think would be interested in contributing. I hope you agree that this is a worthy means to permanently embed Andreas’ spirit and love for talking about science into the cultures of our department and center.
Sandy
Sandra Schmid
Cecil H. Green Distinguished Professor in Cellular and Molecular Biology
Chair, Cell Biology Department
UT Southwestern Medical Center