As much as that, though, I'll remember the warm, casual, but stimulating chats I had with Dave over the years about running, riding bikes, dogs, music, being from the south, having a beard, and a hundred other things. I know I'm only one of hundreds of students and colleagues whose days were made a little easier and a little brighter by Dave.
Please share your memories of a remarkable scientist, teacher, and friend.
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Leave a tributeAs much as that, though, I'll remember the warm, casual, but stimulating chats I had with Dave over the years about running, riding bikes, dogs, music, being from the south, having a beard, and a hundred other things. I know I'm only one of hundreds of students and colleagues whose days were made a little easier and a little brighter by Dave.
We talked briefly about basketball, another passion we shared, and I can't forget his smile when he told me about 'the lunch-bunch' games. I wish we could have played one or two.
My deepest condolences to Dave's family, and to his many friends and colleagues.
One story that comes to mind is one summer we helped each other build tree houses in our yards. Neither of us had a good tree to build it in, so we essentially built a house on stilts. We rented an auger to drill holes for the post. We finished in Dave's yard and got to the last post in my yard, when the auger got stuck on a root and it started to rain. The clay that we had dug up around the hole got slick and the two of us were fighting this stuck auger and slipping and sliding on the slick clay. It was pretty hysterical. Dave had to eventually move his tree house, but that is another story.
I will miss Dave. I am honored to have know him and will treasure all my memories that we shared, watching our kids grow up, and I am sad that I will not have the opportunity to create any new ones with him.
I loved walking by Dave's office. If it was late in the afternoon, there might have been music streaming from his office into the hallways (Bob Marley, the Who, etc.). Or I would see him standing with a student at his whiteboard, waving his arms in excitement as he explained some idea. Sometimes Dave would see me walk by and call for me to come into his office -- he had just created a new visual stimulus that he wanted me to look at. To geeks like us, this was great fun.
Dave was perhaps the most rigorous scientist that I ever worked with. He always emphasized that research topics and experiments had to address naturalistic behaviors and environments. That's an important lesson. He knew how to simplify an experimental task -- so that it could be performed in a laboratory in a controlled fashion -- but he also knew that you don't want to make it too simple because you run the danger of losing its naturalistic aspects. I hope that I always remember that lesson. Another lesson is to avoid short-cuts that may make scientific analyses easier but end up compromising the results. Dave would go to extraordinary lengths to analyze his data in many different ways before settling on the technique or techniques that were most revealing (even if using those techniques was burdensome and time-consuming). I also hope that I always remember that lesson too.
And Dave was a really good friend. It's unusual to find someone who is so intense scientifically, yet is so gentle and relaxed personally. Being with Dave was easy. He made you feel warm and welcome. I enjoyed laughing with him while he would tell stories about his childhood in New Orleans or watching him beam with pride while talking about his kids. I'll miss him very, very much.
My other memory of Dave centers on the annual CVS ski trip, which for several years was held at Debbie's parents' country house near Gore Mt. Everyone was welcome in an atmosphere of good science, good food, and good cheer. One year it was -10F and even colder with the wind chill, but the heat in the house was blazing and we all put in a turn cooking pancakes and bacon for 40 people. Dave was intense and occasionally absent-minded as a scientist, but gentle and welcoming as a person; he really cared about people regardless of rank. We need more people like Dave in the world, and I am so thankful that our paths crossed nearly daily for the past 15 years.
I once considered leaving my research midway through my training for personal reasons; Dave quickly offered support and asked me to focus on the things that were important to me instead of worrying about the project. I will always remember Dave for his generosity, scientific excellence, and the deep concern he had for people around him.
My fondest memories with Dave were during Friday "lab lunch" meetings. His entire lab would pile into his minivan, and we would go somewhere to get lunch and talk about anything (though soccer and the latest bowling tournament with his son were frequent topics). He took a genuine and personal interest in everyone who was working in his lab. At one of these lunches, I mentioned that I had taken up running. Dave told me how he was once training for a marathon, in the middle of winter. Because of the weather the only way he could train was on an indoor track, so the week before his race he spent about 4 hours running in a circle for something like 200 laps. Dave's life was full of spirit and dedication. Dave was a great scientist, and a great mentor, and a great friend.
Of course, I knew of Dave before I arrived to Rochester, and that he was an exceptional scientist whose impact helped shape modern vision research. Working with him closely only further confirmed that perception. What I did not realize about Dave before getting to know him was how deeply he cared about students--not just his own, but all students in our department. A recurring theme of our discussions was how our projects would benefit students and their future careers. He always had students’ best interest in mind and they viewed Dave rightly as their most dedicated and strongest advocate. Dave’s scientific legacy will live on not just through his own discoveries but also through the many scholars whose lives he shaped and touched.
Speaking for myself, I can say Dave’s example, will serve as marker for the kind of achievement to which I aspire. He made his mark on the scientific world all the while never forgetting or neglecting that which really matters most in life. We need more Dave Knill’s in the world and a void will be left for all of us where he once was.
First, Dave had such love and passion for his family. He was so proud of his sons, Ari and Josh, and he always had a big smile when talking about them. I enjoyed hearing his stories about baseball games and bowling tournaments and many of the other great things that his sons did. As accomplished as Dave was as a scientist, he always put family first, and I will always admire him for that.
As a scientist, Dave was truly brilliant. He had a remarkable ability to see the core issues in a scientific question, and he was incredibly successful at developing simple theories and models that could account for a vast array of observations. Dave’s work always gave us new insight into a problem. On top of his accomplishments themselves, I will always remember Dave’s approach to science. For him, it was never about his own accolades (which were richly deserved), but about finding the truth and doing science the right way. He always wanted to know the truth. His integrity, transparency, and collegiality were a model for all young scientists to emulate.
Dave was also a wonderful contributor to the department and the University, as well as the profession. He was passionate about educating students, and made great contributions to the BCS graduate program, as well as the Center for Visual Science. Dave always put an emphasis on doing things that would help students to learn and grow. He was also a great instigator of social interactions in BCS and CVS.
Dave’s time with us was far too short, but his impact and legacy will be disproportionately large for all of us who benefitted to know him. We miss you, Dave.
Dave was equally inspiring as a friend and colleague who freely contributed his grace and fellowship to our community, making it a warmer place to be. He had broad interests and an open heart, and I will miss most of all his generous laugh and delight in interesting conversation.
It was always interesting to have a meeting with him. He could see through the core of my vague ideas, which I might have delved for weeks, usually before my full description finished, and soon came up with several better ones in mathematically organized form. I adored his ability. He encouraged me to explore principles governing phenomena rather than listing eye-catching effects, while urging every bit of research to be crystal clear.
I have a memory of him that moved my heart, too. Because of my Visa status, it once became temporally illegal for me to be an employee of University. I had to stay at home and could not work for several weeks. I felt responsible for this incident, since it was partly due to my carelessness. Then, Dave called me at home. He didn’t talk about the progress of research or what went wrong. He worried about my health insurance, which became invalid for those weeks. He told me not to hesitate to see a doctor when my family or I need to do so. He said, “I will take care of the cost.” Although we didn’t need to see a doctor, it was a heartwarming offer.
I am greatly indebted to him in many aspects.
His family and close friends will miss Dave, but science will miss him too – nearly as much if not more.
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One fun memory: Dave reading the boys excerpts from a Dave Barry book. He'd start in a regular way, then begin laughing, try again to read, then laugh harder and tear up, then try again until we were all hysterical.
Over the last few days I have been thinking a lot about the time that I was Dave's post-doc. I changed to a somewhat different research field since then, but I always imagined meeting him again at a conference where we would chat about what we had been doing since. I am very sad that that will not going to happen.
I remember arriving in Rochester for my new job, together with my (since a few weeks) ‘dependent alien’ husband Andries, while our luggage got lost somewhere on the way and being somewhat shocked about the basement where everybody was working without any windows!?! Dave seemed to be happy enough though. Who needs windows when you can talk and think about cue combination and modelling, when you can write, program and simply get to the bottom of anything that needs to be figured out! I was very happy to work with someone that smart, that dedicated to science and so completely uninterested in trivial things like status and citations. He also wanted us students and post-docs to feel at home, and organized Friday afternoon drinks where we discussed religion and politics. For Andries and me, the opportunity to work in Dave’s lab also gave us the interesting experience to live in the US for a while and to explore the beautiful surroundings. I have very fond memories of a weekend in January 2007 when Dave invited CVS at a house somewhere in the snow. I don’t remember exactly where it was, but I do remember Dave’s warm hospitality (we were allowed to smuggle in a friend from the astrophysics department), playing games in the evening, cross-country skiing and trying out snow shoes for the first time in my life. We had a lot of fun, and I am sure Dave too, even though he could not stop himself from spending some time to work during this weekend as well!