Junichi Ryu

Junichi was a professor at Loma Linda University in Los Angeles. He spent a couple of sabbaticals here at NEB. Yvette and I used to live with him under the same roof on his first 6-month visit 2 years ago.

Junichi was a very neat person and made us assign each person a couple of shelves inside the fridge, which was far from chaotic but agreeably in need of improvement. He worked sort of in LA time, meaning coming home late at around mid-night, but would do all his best not to make any noise to wake us up.

He was always enthusiastic about his research and we would spend hours talking about restriction enzymes. It was still like yesterday when I met him in the hallway the day he flew back to LA and said good-bye to him - he was still debating whether he should drive his truck all the way from LA on his next visit.

On February 6, 2008 around 3pm, he unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack at work. He was 60 years old. His memorial service will be held 4 pm today (Pacific time) at Loma Linda Chinese Seventh-day Adventist Church. I wish Junichi rest in peace and his family, specially his wife who has recently recovered from ovarian cancer, the best for their future.