Goodbye JB

Once in a while, you meet people that are talented, courteous, helpful and friendly. JB was such a person. A very talented electron microscopist, extremely helpful, patient and with a great British sense of humor. We met 3 years ago when I wanted to do some electron microscopy for my project. The problem was that I had never seen an electron microscope before and knew as much about EM as the fruit seller on 62nd and 2nd (well, just a bit more than him). The second problem was that JB was one the pioneers of the EM field and was your average famous scientist. Usually when such meetings happen, either the newbie is intimidated or the honcho gets frustrated. It was JB who took me under his wing, taught me everything about EM and got me talking about my project to him as well. He was so interested in my project that he told other people about my creative project and they in turn started asking me if I can use my system for their protein. This continued for most of 2005.

I emailed him yesterday so that we could meet up, after almost a year of lull in the EM front of my work. I had been learning more advanced EM techniques (even went all the way to California for an advanced training course). He replied saying that he had moved to the UK and was setting up a lab there. The suddenness of this news and the fact that I wouldn't be able to discuss ideas and problems easily with him anymore put a cloud on my day. Goodbye dear JB and good luck to you. Thank you for your support and training. If I ever do something cool with EM, please know that it will be because you got me motivated into it in the first place. I hope you continue to inspire many more people like me.