Yesterday, I found out that my senior thesis advisor, Anne Mayes, passed away earlier this year from complications that stemmed from breast cancer treatment which started in 1994. When I was working on my thesis, she was 29 years old – a freshly appointed assistant professor at MIT. I remember her taking me out to Chinese food after a long day in the lab, I remember finding her in the morning asleep on the floor after pulling an all-nighter writing a paper or grant proposal. I was her first undergraduate student and she made a huge impression on me. She was not diagnosed with cancer until a few months after I graduated and she managed to simultaneously successfully undergo cancer treatment and become the first woman tenured in the Mat Sci Dept at MIT – what crazy dedication that must have taken (also, she’s just brilliant, but that’s a given). I lost touch with her many years ago, I’m not sure she would even remember me – but she was a pivotal person in my life. So RIP Anne, you will be missed.
Find her family and tell them just what you written. It will mean so much!