David C. Knill, (1960 - 2014) - ForeverMissed.com Online Memorials

53 years old
Born on November 1, 1960
Passed away on October 6, 2014

Please share your memories of a remarkable scientist, teacher, and friend.

Tributes

October 10, 2014

I knew Dave when I was a grad student in BCS. I attended his seminars and TA-ed for him for a semester. What stuck with me most about Dave was his completely uncanny ability to explain tough concepts with clarity, precision, and profoundly earnest excitement and curiosity. He was equally in his element explaining the t-distribution to undergrads, sparse coding to grad students, and catching fly-balls (using basic principles of depth and motion perception, of course) to his son's baseball team. He simply had a gift and a passion for teaching.

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.

October 10, 2014

Dave was a great colleague and a just a really good guy. His life was balanced, and it was clear how much he valued his family. Working with him was a pleasure. He listened, was completely unselfish, and was extremely insightful in a gentle, cooperative way. I will miss him in the department and I will always regret having not spent enough time with him as a friend.

October 10, 2014

Dave's passion for the projects and ideas that he was excited about was inspiring. He would become so animated and joyful when talking about something important. It made me want to be a part of whatever he was talking about. I will miss that.

October 10, 2014

I have met Dave very briefly, few hours only. Yet, he made a fantastic impression on me and I feel so saddened at his passing. Just one short scientific conversation with him was enough to generate several ideas for exciting new experiments, and his genuine enthusiasm for science was absolutely contagious. That spark in his eyes, only very few have it.

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.

October 10, 2014

Whenever I think of my graduate years at Rochester BCS, Dave is one of the people who particularly stands out. He was that combination of brilliance, humility, and kindness that makes for the best scientists and the best mentors. My heartfelt condolences to Dave's family and Rochester colleagues.

October 10, 2014

I am greatly saddened to loose Dave as a friend and colleague. He was a major contributor to experiment and theory in vision science. I am grateful not only for is contributions to the field, but for the specific feedback he provided to me about my own efforts. Dave was easy and fun to talk to about all topics. It was just a six weeks ago or so that we had a couple of long discussions about science and other things. He seemed as strong and healthy as ever, with that usual gleam in his eye. I will miss him.

October 9, 2014

I knew Dave as a neighbor and friend. We raised out kids together on a great block in Brighton, where a pack of kids, including Dave's and mine, could run around together playing street games and end up and be welcome at any one or 4-5 houses on the block. Dave was one of those rare individuals where every time I encountered him, whether it revolved organizing some activity with the kids or enjoying a drink together, I always left the encounter feeling better. Dave brought a child-like enthusiasm to life that was simply infectious. It was hard not to smile more and appreciate life more around Dave.
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.

October 9, 2014

Dave was a mentor to me as a graduate student, and I TA'ed statistics for him for two years. He was an incredibly dedicated and talented educator, and embued all of his students with his own zeal for scientific skepticism in a way that inspired me to want to do the same. Dave was also a mentor to me as a senior faculty member in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and, in both roles, offered me incredibly thoughtful tips and advice in moments where he observed that I could use them. Midway through my grad school career, during a meeting in which I dropped my pen and cellphone repeatedly due to sleep deprivation, he casually mentioned a cool paper he'd read on the long-term consequences of sleep deprivation on cognitive function and memory, and offered to print me a copy if I wanted (which I did). It was really considerate and kind, which is how he was always. Dave was also the only other person in my department who was from New Orleans, and who reliably wished me Happy Mardi Gras each year. He made the department feel like a home for me, and for that, I will always be greatful. He will be fondly remembered and deeply missed.

October 9, 2014

I knew Dave from Brown days back in the late 1980s and we have kept in touch through meetings and shared interests ever since. Our conversations ranged from soccer to science to family, politics, recovery from various aches and pains. Besides his brilliance, I knew Dave as a sweet, kind, authentic person. His brilliance, creativity and integrity shone through, although he appeared almost ego-less. In fact the only times I can remember Dave bragging is when discussion turned to soccer. I can't resist one science memory. I credit Dave with the suggestion that the phenomena that fall under the rubric of "change blindness" would be more aptly explained by "change distraction". It's a tiny fragment of the wisdom he uncovered and shared, but it's a memory I cherish. My heartfelt condolences to Dave's family and the large community of scientists and friends that loved this great man.

October 9, 2014

For many years Dave has had a secondary appointment in Computer Science. While I didn't have a chance to collaborate with him personally, his presence was a valued addition to the department. My heart goes out to his family and friends, and especially to his wife, Deb, whose amazing work with the Writing Center has done so much to enrich the University.

October 9, 2014

When I start a project or write a paper, I ask myself--literally--what Dave will think of it. I've done this for many years. I know I'm not alone in doing this. We will keep doing this of course, and it's one of the ways Dave will live on. I will dearly miss his friendship too.

October 9, 2014

Dave was an incredible colleague. My last substantial interaction with him was typified the honesty and clarity he, literally, brought to life. He wanted to talk about an honor court case, discussing the moral and statistical implications of different choices of priors and likelihoods and how a good Bayesian should decide cases of academic cheating. It was a wonderful to see him deploy his technical expertise in a moral domain so close to his heart. I will remember his unflinching precision in reasoning throughout all searches for truth. He leaves a legacy in my mind of dedication to honesty and care in all things.

October 9, 2014

Like so many people who have written their thoughts here, I valued my friendship with Dave deeply. We've been friends for 20 yrs, and I always looked forward to seeing him at meetings. Our conversations were so wide ranging but often started with his family and how the boys were doing. I often held him up as an example to students to illustrate how creative, rigorous science is done by a thoughtful generous, warm person. I will miss him, his big hugs, how he loved to laugh, and how he cared about people and ideas. My heart and thoughts go to Debbie, Ari and Josh.

October 9, 2014

I first met Dave as a senior BCS major in his stats class, and began working in his lab part-time as an RA that year. After graduating he offered me a full time position, which I happily accepted. I was a technician in Dave's lab for over 5 years, and during that time got to know him well. He was a brilliant researcher, and I remember many lab meetings where the white board would be filled corner to corner with formulas and equations for the next project. But my fondest memories are of the weekly "Lab Lunches." He would often have his minivan and we would cram every seat full of people and head out to eat. Those lunches were filled with funny conversations on anything from chess and checkers, to beer, to soccer, and everything in between. He was a great person to work for, and a great mentor, and I am so thankful I was able to work in his lab.

October 9, 2014

I feel so lucky to have known Dave. He was a great personal friend, a close research collaborator, and a department faculty colleague. I learned so much from Dave along so many different dimensions. Dave taught me about Belgian beers. He also taught me about visual perception, such as what little I know about vision motion, stereo, and texture. And Dave had really elegant ways of explaining hierarchical Bayesian models.

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.

October 9, 2014

Dave and I were colleagues and collaborators at the University of Rochester. In practice, when I think of our work together (collaborating on projects, co-advising graduate students, sitting on the CVS executive committee), I automatically see them as an expression of science and friendship, rather than “work”. In the last few days since his death, I have tried to understand why Dave made these interactions so different. The answer - for me at least - came down to Dave’s humanistic take on life. His scientific brilliance, rigor and ethics were balanced by a deceptively accurate grasp of, unfailing respect and warmth for the individuals who surrounded him. In this, and in so many other ways, he will be sorely missed. His scientific and personal legacy will live on. We will never forget you, Dave. Safe travels.

October 9, 2014

Dave's impact on the department and the field was enormous, but personally two things stand out. One was professional -- Dave embodied the uniqueness of our department culture which encourages multidisciplinarity. One of our grad students in language took Dave's seminar in vision and crafted a dissertation on speech perception that created a new way of thinking about how we understand spoken language. For a diehard vision guy, Dave got turned on to auditory perception and speech, so much so that he continued to work with another grad student on audio-visual speech perception. His mathematical rigor set the standard for these two dissertations.

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.

October 9, 2014

I am privileged to have known Dave. He was my post-doctoral mentor at the University of Rochester. From the day I met Dave, I recognized that he valued people above everything else. He was a brilliant scientist and extremely rigorous in his approach to solving problems. Dave’s intuition, attention to detail, patience (during the times when everything that could go wrong, did), his never-give-up attitude, and above all, his human touch were truly inspirational. I fondly remember the days when we were working on setting up a virtual bug-squashing task. His enthusiasm rubbed off on everyone around him. He would often narrate an incident or a funny story and somehow link it with a solution to a problem with the experiment I was working on. Perhaps this was Dave’s way of teaching a clinical researcher about the Bayesian approach and concepts.
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.

October 9, 2014

I've known Dave and his work for such a long time that I barely remember when we first met. His research areas were very close to my own. Yet, I never ever thought of us as competitive but, rather, as collaborating on a research enterprise even though we never directly collaborated as such (other than one co-authored chapter). He was always someone who held the intellectual bar very high and yet would make his comments and suggestions in such a way as to make you feel good about your own work while, at the same time, helping you to improve it. I can't believe he's gone, and I miss him already.

October 8, 2014

Dave was a great role model -- to me he was an example of someone who figured out the important things in life.

October 8, 2014

Dave Knill was my post-doctoral mentor for four years at the University of Rochester. He was a friend, but it's probably more accurate to say that I was in awe of him. Here is a small sample of the qualities I saw in Dave at our every meeting: His ability to immediately see through to the absolute heart of a scientific question, his insistence on tackling hard and meaningful problems rather than "low hanging fruit", his dedication to understanding the brain as it functions in the world rather than in the laboratory, and his uncanny ability to design a simple experiment that would break new ground in a field regardless of the outcome. I try and emulate these qualities, but when I'm at my very best I'm a pale shadow of the scientist that he was. Dave's passing is simply a tremendous and irreplaceable loss to cognitive science.

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.

October 8, 2014

Dave was a friend, colleague and a mentor, and he inspired me in each of those roles. I will miss his inquisitive and relaxed approach to science, as well as a countless number of attributes that made Dave Dave, like his love of soccer, his hometown, and Belgian beer. Mostly, I will miss the privilege of working with him and will remember him fondly as a great collaborator and man. I admired his excellence in the field, but also the way in which he spoke constantly and lovingly of his wife and sons. Science was his intellectual focus, and he excelled in his career, yet his family was his greatest passion.

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.

October 8, 2014

I had the privilege to be Dave’s colleague and friend, as well as (more recently) his department chair. In all of these contexts, Dave’s passion and integrity showed through in everything he did. I want to share a few of the ways in which I will always remember him.

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.

October 8, 2014

David was a wonderful person and one of the most careful, smartest scientists I ever met. He was incredibly thoughtful and rigorous. I always will think of him as a trailblazer in applying sophisticated mathematical approaches to perception and action. He helped change the way we study vision today. I will miss him and our interactions over the years.

October 8, 2014

I do not know Dave well as I was just another undergraduate student at the time. I worked in a lab right next to his and only interacted with him briefly when we crossed paths in the hallway. There was this one memory of him that stuck with me for the last decade, and I just wanted to share that here. I remember going to finalize my class schedule for the start of spring 2005 at (I believe) Lattimore hall, and he walked in the door and got in line behind me. When I was done and on my way out, I heard him say to the lady behind the desk that he was there to change a grade for a student from a B+ to an A- for a class last fall. I guess I didn't think much of it at that moment, but I learned to appreciate it over the years. It just showed how much he cared about his students.

October 8, 2014

David's work speaks for his brilliance and impact on science. I will remember David as the person who first introduced to me the concept of "gestalt" and the person who, after receiving excellent service, was aware of and concerned about how patients with lower socioeconomic status than himself were treated at hospitals.

October 8, 2014

Over the twenty years I knew him Dave became both an inspiration and a friend to me. He has had a profound influence on vision science, particularly when it comes to building and testing rigorous models for perception and action. The breadth of his expertise in mathematics, statistics and psychophysics were important here, but equally important was his clear-minded passion for identifying core issues at the heart of complex phenomena.

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.

October 8, 2014

Dave was one of a few people who surprised me at the talks all the time. When I was the 1st and 2nd year graduate student, of course, I struggled with understanding the very basic concepts and results. Then there was Dave Knill, who always came up with brilliant questions, and often with ideas that the presenter had never thought of. His thought was novel, but always contains his own flavor of 'computation', which intellectually stimulated me all the time. With all of his intellectual power, he was gentle and nice. He will be remembered and missed a lot.

October 8, 2014

I truly valued Dave as a colleague. All of our interactions were vibrant, exciting, and informative. Likewise his research was valuable and field leading. I'm shocked by his passing but he will be remembered fondly as a person and his research contributions will be lasting.

October 8, 2014

We have lost an inspiring, creative scientist/scholar and a truly fine person. I will miss you, Dave, and I'll do my part to see that future students of vision understand the enormous impact your contributions have had on our field.

October 8, 2014

Dave was my postdoctoral mentor. He was brilliant yet strict in research, but generous in personal issues.

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.

October 8, 2014

I had the honor of being one of Dave’s colleagues. We participated in many study sections together where his fairness, integrity and scientific knowledge were always in display. He will be missed. My condolences to the family and the entire vision research community.

October 8, 2014

I never had the pleasure to be Dave's colleague, although it came close. But he has been one of my heroes who taught me how great science visual psychophysicist can do, particularly because I came from another universe where the world looked different. In addition to his science, he impressed me with his honesty, high standards and, as others testify, his sharp intellect.
His family and close friends will miss Dave, but science will miss him too – nearly as much if not more.

October 8, 2014

It is difficult to know what to say. I have known him since our days in grad school together in the 80''s. Echoing everything else here, David was unique--kind and gentle, empathic and mentoring, all against a background of a fierce intelligence and insight-- all understated and modest. I will always remember his infectious smile and laugh, his fun-loving nature, and his pure love of science - I will miss him and remember him in the small (but important) moments of science.

October 7, 2014

Dave was a neighbor on our street in Brighton-we raised our boys together- and a colleague at the University of Rochester. I feel so shocked and saddened at his passing. I have two kinds of memories of Dave--one with his gentle smile as he is conversing about something of shared interest and second, him throwing baseballs to his son on the Brighton baseball fields to help them practice, when they were just little guys. A wonderful friend, neighbor, father and husband. He will be greatly missed by so many people.

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Recent Tributes

October 6, 2023

Ari, Josh, and I are together sharing memories and again reading these tributes. They bring us such joy!

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.

October 6, 2023

I was just looking through some old photo albums and came across some pictures of Dave from when he and I were roommates at the University of Virginia. Although that is now more than 40 years ago it seems like yesterday. I often think of the silly things Dave and I did together, but mostly I just think about how much I miss him and how I wish he was here now. I take a little comfort in thinking about his laugh and his smile and how he lived life the way it should be lived.

October 6, 2023

Hard to believe it has been 9 years since that terrible day. We miss him. I still find myself, from time to time, thinking about what Dave would have said when we are discussing some topic in a faculty meeting, etc. Dave would have also been really excited about all of the ways that data science and AI are blending with cognitive science, and he was way ahead of his time in anticipating a lot of this. I'm sure he would have done some ground-breaking new stuff in this day and age. Cheers to Dave!

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Gallery

Dave and I were close friends as undergrads at UVa and beyond. This is our yearbook picture.

This is a wonderful portrait of Dave that was painted by a former BCS postdoc, Rachel Wu (thanks Rachel!). It now resides in the Knill Lounge in Meliora Hall, along with a placque in memory of Dave.

David Knill, ca. 1990, University of Minnesota

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