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06-01-2011
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In Memoriam: Seungyoup Chi, 1974-2011

Submitter: Alicia Berciano, Edo Loenen, Roberto Pizzo, Peter Barthel & Michael Garrett
Description: On the 3rd of January 2011, Seungyoup Chi a PhD student of ASTRON, JIVE & the Kapteyn institute in Groningen, passed away at the age of 36, after a year and a half struggle against cancer.

Seungyoup was a frequent visitor to Dwingeloo, and we all have very happy memories of him. His friends, Alicia, Edo & Roberto shared countless dinners, BBQs, movie nights, laughs and discussions with him. His supervisors, Peter & Mike, remember how he told them that he had wanted to be an astronomer for as long as he could remember, and they watched him grow into an accomplished, independent researcher. Seungyoup was disappointed not to have the chance to formally finish and defend his PhD thesis.

Alicia remembers their joint plans to "borrow" a large print board of the JIVE logo that was lying around in the JIVE guest room, in order to display it on their shared office door at the Kapteyn! Alicia also remembers Mike dubbing Seungyoup the first "terabyte astronomer", because the VLBI data set he worked on (Global VLBI Observations of the Hubble Deep Field correlated at JIVE) was over a terabyte in size.

Seungyoup bore his illness with great dignity, good cheer and humility. He was an example to us all. The image presented above was taken in Korea in November 2009, a few months after Seungyoup started his battle against the cancer. At that time the treatment was going very well. This is how we like to remember Seungyoup: a very nice, gentle and friendly guy with a big heart and a smile to match.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all his family and friends in S.Korea the strength to cope with these difficult times. Seungyoup was a very good student and a great friend to us all - we will miss him greatly.
Copyright: ASTRON
 
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