Last week, Sam Roweis passed away after falling from his 16th floor balcony. A professor of computer science at New York University, Sam was highly regarded for his research in the field of machine learning. A memorial website has been set up in remembrance and celebration of his life.
I only just met Sam for the first time last November at a machine learning symposium in NYC, but had attended a few of his talks before that. He'd always struck me as very intelligent and enthusiastic about research -- qualities that many others (who knew him much better than I) also noted.
After reading through a number of testimonies on the memorial website, I realized that in many ways Sam was the kind of person that I hope to become. The circumstances of my discovering this are indeed tragic -- as they often are, since such personal qualities tend to become so publicly celebrated only after tragedy strikes (e.g., Randy Pausch).
Sam is survived by his wife and two children. Those wishing to help are invited to make donations to the Sam Roweis Memorial Fund.
1 comments:
This is so tragic. I have never met Sam Roweis but I went through his video lectures quite a few times. He was really a fantastic scientist. This is a big loss to machine learning community.
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