January 2019 – July 2022
UC Berkeley’s School of Information posted this tribute to Professor Doug Tygar, who passed away last week at the Berkeley Lab Guest House. Those affected by this event are encouraged to seek assistance. Contact the Employee Assistance program at 510-643-7754 or or employeeassistance@berkeley.edu https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/news/2020/passing-professor-doug-tygar
Lab Controller Paul Flynn passed away on Dec. 3 from colon cancer. Flynn served as Acting Controller starting in June 2017 and was named Controller in March 2019. Read more about his contributions to the Lab’s financial systems, and why his co-workers will miss his sense of fun. https://sites.google.com/view/remembering-paul-flynn/home
Jack Hollander, a prominent nuclear scientist who co-founded the environmental research program in 1968 at Berkeley Lab and also served as the director of its Energy and Environment Division from 1973-1976, died Nov. 10 at the age of 92. A memorial service is planned for spring. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=jack-hollander&pid=194534379
Steve Blair passed away on Oct. 25 at the age of 66. He worked in the Facilities Division for 40 years as a civil engineer. In addition to numerous improvement projects touching all corners of the Lab, he served as LBNL softball league commissioner for many years and played in several Lab bands.
Frank Olken, a data scientist who spent 36 years at Berkeley Lab tackling the challenge of big data before it became Big Data, died Oct. 18 at age 67. He also worked two stints as a National Science Foundation program director in Arlington, Va. https://crd.lbl.gov/news-and-publications/news/2019/longtime-lab-pioneering-data-scientist-frank-olken-has-died/
Sally Floyd, a former Lab computer scientist and one of the inventors of Random Early Detection, or RED, an algorithm widely used to handle internet congestion, died Aug. 25 in Berkeley. Read her New York Times obituary (subscription required). https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/science/sally-floyd-dead.html
Charles “Chuck” Fadley, a pioneer in x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, died at his home in Berkeley on August 1. He was a distinguished professor emeritus of physics at UC Davis, and an Advanced Light Source professor and senior faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab. He was 77. https://als.lbl.gov/in-memoriam-charles-fadley-pioneer-in-x-ray-photoelectron-spectroscopy/
Lab retiree Leslie Striplin passed away on July 6 after a brief illness. She joined the Lab in 1986 and retired in 2012. Her duties included administrative support for Associate Lab Director Martha Krebs and Fleet Operations. A celebration of her life takes place July 27 in Oakland.
Oliver Morse passed away on May 30 at age 86. He worked at the Lab from 1977 to 1995 in Facilities and the Environmental Energy Technologies Division (now ETA). He played in the Lab’s softball league and participated in the Runaround into his 80s. Details on a memorial have not yet been announced.
Alan “Al” Smith, a pioneering researcher who joined Berkeley Lab in 1953, passed away at his home in El Cerrito on May 8. He helped create the low-background counting lab in Building 72, which has performed gamma-ray assays of materials used in revolutionary neutrino and dark matter experiments. https://www.sanfordlab.org/article/life-low-background