Here we share some of Marilyn's remembrances from the numerous students and colleagues whose lives she has touched.
I was so saddened to hear about Marilyn’s tragic and untimely death. The world lost a great, and probably one of the most prolific, crystallographers today. She was a great help to me in setting up the X-ray facility when I first came to campus. Marilyn was always willing and delighted to help with any question I asked her. She was always supportive of junior faculty. Additionally, I was able to glean much crystallography knowledge and history from her when we co-taught the x-ray crystallography class once many years ago, for which I am ever thankful. She will be greatly missed in Davis and the crystallography community across the world.
– Prof. Andy Fisher, UCD Chemistry
I was shocked to hear the news about Marilyn. She was special. I met her many years ago and always greatly enjoyed discussions with her about structures she had solved. I collaborated with her in the 90s on Re(I) and Pd(II) structures, a collaboration that led to a paper in Inorganic Chemistry. She was so much fun to work with!
She will be missed but not forgotten.
– Prof. Harry B. Gray, Caltech
Marilyn was a mentor and friend to me. She is a co-author on my first UC Davis paper and mentored a large number of my graduate students. Always encouraging in research yet rigorous in structure determination. Her impact to myself, my postdocs, graduate students and undergraduates on how to think about research and the excitement of discovery cannot be understated.
She not only engaged her collaborators in research but also in her personal life. Fantastic tennis player and encouraged me back into the game. Many of my students spoke of her support and weekends of respite at her Lake Tahoe residence.
She was too young and will be greatly missed.
– Prof. Susan Kauzlarich, UCD Chemistry
I’m greatly saddened that such a tragic accident would befall such a wonderful person.
Marilyn was a regular co-organizer at the Larock symposium and I often saw her and said hello there. She must have enjoyed helping students contribute to science and move forward in their careers at all levels.
– Prof. Lee-Ping Wang, UCD Chemistry
Is there anyone in the history of Davis Chemistry who has directly helped as many students and postdocs as Marilyn?
– Prof. Dave Britt, UCD Chemistry
Oh my goodness... I cannot believe this has just happened. Rest In Peace Marilyn Olmstead. I remember taking her X-ray class as a graduate student and how passionate she was on the subject and its history. She helped me a lot during and after the class was over on solving crystal structures when I was struggling. Her kindness and willingness to help her students really rubbed off on me. She will be greatly missed.
– Andrew Otsuki, Mascal Group, UCD Chemistry
I didn’t know Marilyn well, but as a fellow chemist I was always a little jealous of her picture in the UCD breezeway with the liquid nitrogen 'smoke' all around her. That’s how I will always remember her! Condolences.
– Paul Hrvatin, Chemical Instrumentation Specialist, UCD Chemistry
Yesterday afternoon I learned that Marilyn had died earlier in the day in a tragic accident. Before it was known for sure I had been asked to contact anyone who may have seen her during the 5+ hour period in which she was missing. I had hoped, when I contacted Balch group members, that she was having coffee with one of them…
Marilyn was the second UC Davis Crystallographer having learned her Crystallography from the first, Håkon Hope (X-ray lab: 1965-1985), beginning in 1975 and then running the lab from ~1985-2004.
Marilyn was always a pleasure to work with and somebody who let bothersome stuff roll off her shoulders. She was a positive presence in the lab and in life and always interested in the why. If a strange dataset was collected, she was not only interested in finding the structure but equally in why did the data frames look the way they did. Our own Sherlock. She was the Queen of fullerene crystallography with intrinsic knowledge about the various structures, their preferential growth patterns and great at sorting out the various ways in which they twinned.
I originally met Marilyn at an American Crystallographic Association (ACA) meeting but did not have a real conversation with her until a few years later when we discussed sports and why she was wearing a foot cast. She was very much into athletics, loved to play tennis, bicycled to work, and skied whenever she could. Staying at the Tahoe cabin was a treat. Due to Sars-Cov2 she has not been in the lab these past several months. She will be sorely missed….
Please look out for one another.
– Dr. Jim Fettinger, X-ray Crystallographer, UCD Chemistry
Marylin was one of the first people that made me feel welcome at UC Davis when I arrived here in June of 2000. She and her husband Alan Olmstead invited me and students to their cabin near Lake Tahoe and in return make us cut firewood in the yard. I will never forget the beautiful mountain hikes we went on, the meals we enjoyed together, and the stories she told about her undergraduate times at UC Berkeley.
For about 10 years, Marilyn and I served on the chemistry club committee. There she helped to plan and conduct outreach events, incl. the annual chemistry magic show campus, many events at Farmers market, at Explorit, or the annual preview event in the ARC. She truly enjoyed working with the undergraduate students and would generously donate her time, often on weekends. She also was strongly engaged in the Larock conference, from the beginning in 2007 until just last year.
Marilyn has been such a positive presence in the department. Her door was always open so I could ask her for advice, or stop by for a chat. She always had a smile on her face and never complained, even as she was getting older and started to experience health problems. And her work was most important to her, always solving crystal structures, writing publications, and helping students.
I am going to miss my friend and colleague Marilyn. May she rest in peace.
– Prof. Frank Osterloh, UCD Chemistry
I first met Marilyn when I was an Assistant prof at UCSC and she came to give a seminar (1994?). She collaborated with my former colleague Pradip Mascharak, and he always raved about her crystallography skills as "magical."
I immediately liked her - she was so friendly, upbeat and down to earth and wicked smart! When Pete and I were contemplating coming to UCD, Marilyn was an extremely positive influence-- she showed that you can be an amazing, successful scientist, and dedicated teacher.
She also had happily raised her children in Davis-- that she was able to do all these things here meant alot to me personally.
Since joining Davis, I always enjoyed talking to Marilyn-- being on the Larock symposium committee, lunches, and bumping into her in the hall. In recent years we ended up having connections with her via our girls and their friends and Marilyn's family -- for example, one of Surina's best friend's mom and grandmother are dear friends with Marillyn and her son.
She was an amazing person -- we are so lucky to have known her.
– Prof. Sheila David, UCD Chemistry
Marilyn is a respected colleague, and a role model.
– Prof. Cheuk Ng, UCD Chemistry
I am so deeply saddened by this news, I’m sorry for Marilyn’s family and each and every one of us who cherished her collegiality. I actually heard of Marilyn before I ever became a faculty member here. I was visiting Rick Troy in the UC Davis department of biochemistry in 1999 and he told me that UC Davis has a very distinguished scholar in the department of chemistry, Marilyn Olmstead, who is among the most highly cited women in science. I was so delighted to meet her when I had the honor of interviewing for the faculty position in the department in 2000. Years later, when I was serving the NSF, we celebrated the 100th Year of Crystallography and everyone involved in the project, as well as visitors to the Foundation would remind me of Marilyn’s prominence in the field. Marilyn truly was a pioneering spirit not only in science but also as a woman. She set an example of excellence and grace we can all aspire to emulate.
– Prof. Jackie Gervay-Hague, UCD Chemistry
This is very sad news and like most of us, I am at a loss to truly express how I feel. Marilyn was an amazing mentor and colleague to so many graduate students, undergraduates, faculty and staff. I met her the first year that I arrived as a new faculty member and I enjoyed working with her on the Chemistry Club and Magic Show for so many years and the photos that Frank sent brought many memories and tears. I also enjoyed many scientific conversations with her.
I hope that we can celebrate the memories and honor the knowledge and mentorship she provided to so many of us.
– Prof. Annaliese Franz, UCD Chemistry
So sad for the loss of a wonderful colleague and person. She represents our best of spirit.
The last time I saw her was a lunch together with her and several other colleagues, right before the pandemic. We discussed trying various kinds of cultural food in later days because we really enjoyed them. She gracefully got on her bike after lunch, and I was looking forward to re-gathering after the pandemic.
Marilyn, Keep enjoying real and reciprocal space. Rest in peace!
– Prof. Gang-yu Liu, UCD Chemistry
What very very sad news. Marilyn was always the proactive one, reaching out to anyone who she felt could benefit from her expertise—which was pretty much everyone in the department. She helped me immensely, especially mid-career, when we encountered systems that could be cracked only by her insight from solving gnarly fullerene structure problems. My goodness. She will be greatly missed. Rest in peace, friend.
– Prof. Neil Schore, UCD Chemistry
I’m am very sorry to hear this tragic news.
I’ve always kidded Marilyn, saying that I want to get at least one crystal structure before she left because she had built up such an incredible resource. She would laugh and encourage me to get her samples. Even though I was outside of her field, I knew she was highly prominent but very humble and infinitely approachable. I can attest to all the students, postdoc, and faculty she’s trained and who’s lives she’s touched.
– Prof. Carlito Lebrilla, UCD Chemistry
It was really sad to hear about the sudden pass of a dear colleague. I learned a lot about how good a mentor, a dedicated educator, and a tireless contributor that Marilyn was to students, colleagues, and community when she was nominated for and rightfully named an ACS Fellow. She will always be in my thoughts.
– Prof. Xi Chen, UCD Chemistry
What a terrible and untimely loss. Marilyn was one of the first people I met when touring the department, and I remember the spark in her eye and enthusiasm as she talked about her work. There is no one who was more engaged in her research and willing to students and colleagues. She was one of the world's most prominent and prolific small molecule crystallographers, a giant in her field. A kind and cheerful person, always willing to stop and chat. She will be greatly missed.
– Prof. Dave Goodin, UCD Chemistry
Marilyn was the most important person in my professional career. She inspired me more than anyone to pursue a career in chemistry. It all started with a course in crystallography that I took with Prof. Hakon Hope when I was an undergraduate at UC Davis. Then I asked Hope if I could carry out undergraduate research in his lab, and he hooked me up with Marilyn. I worked with her on some copper complexes produced in Prof. Ken Musker's lab. What I remember the most is my trip with Marilyn to Lawrence Livermore holding a huge deck of computer punch cards to run a data refinement program on some data we had obtained. I also remember going through a stack of green and white printer paper trying to find a big cluster of numbers in a Patterson map.
This was all in the late 70s when Marilyn was a staff crystallographer. I remember going to a retreat cabin in the woods near Lake Tahoe, I think it was Musker's place. I slept outside in a tent while all the "adults" slept in the cabin. I babsay for Marilyn's kids a few times so I guess she trusted me.
I am sure Marilyn had many Mike Gelb's in her life where she was able to give them such motivation to excel in science.
Over the years I have gone to the PacificChem meetings in Hawaii. Often I would hook up with Marilyn. Once we spent a day driving all the way around Oahu after the conference ended. I gave a seminar at UCD about 15 yrs ago and had a wonderful dinner with Marilyn and Alan along with the Balch's. She came to UW to give a seminar (I was the host) and
she spent some time at my house and met with wife.
Thank you Marilyn for all the wonderful things you did for me over the past 35 years. I will never forget you.
– Prof. Michael H Gelb, University of Washington
I am so very sorry. I first published with Marilyn and Ken Musker in 1987 and we remained friends since our first meeting in the early 1980s.
– Prof. Bruce Hammock, UCD Dept. of Entomology & UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center
It has been an unbearably horrible 48 hours for myself and other members of the Balch lab, past and present. Reminiscing about Marilyn both comes easily, because of her massive presence in our lives, and feels excruciating, because of the hole she leaves behind. Every computer in our office and lab boots with the username “Marilyn”, I eat out of cutlery that used to belong to her, I currently own her old air-purifier, all of us still have mason-jars of her last batch of jelly, and there are dozens of other piercing reminders everywhere I look. So instead of the heartbreaking process of trying to pick an appropriate anecdote about her loving, brilliant self, I would like to highlight some absolutely golden “Marilyn Quotes” I had the privilege of hearing over the last few years, which I hope will bring everyone some much-needed joy:
1. “I tried to read the latest draft but couldn’t get past the impenetrably boring introduction.”
2. (Upon walking into Room 7) “Who is collecting this garbage dataset?”
3. “Can you help me reach both handles on this front panel?” (pauses to look me up and down) “On second thought, can you go get someone taller?”
4. “Never marry a man who cannot load a dishwasher.”
5. “If you can visualize the movement of a screw axis, you are halfway there. If you cannot - oh boy.”
6. Marilyn: “Did you save the slide?”
Me: “No..should I start digging through the trash?”
Marilyn: “Yes, good girl, if I believed in blessings I’d say bless you”.
7. (After a Tuesday seminar) “Good talk, not enough crystal structures, 6/10”
I hope we can remember her as the ever-smiling, quirky, sassy, incredibly kind, effervescent genius that she was.
– Mrittika Roy, Balch Group, UCD Chemistry
I learned the tragic news today. Dear Marilyn, I’m heartbroken. We co-published two papers – a third manuscript is still in my hands, unfinished. She was exquisitely dedicated to the details. With our sub-standard crystals in hand (our feeble attempts on a natural product extracted by our group from a Great Barrier Reef invertebrate) she worked ‘magic’ at the Stanford Synchrotron and made them ‘alive’. In science, she knew no boundaries – she was fearless and bold. Marilyn. Over 16 years, as a professor at UC Davis, I’d cycled ~10,000 miles in Davis and thought I knew, well, the bike-paths, the streets, the overpasses, and lanes. Marilyn knew them better. She loved the outdoors; we’d talk about Tahoe and Desolation Wilderness trails. While Marilyn was still a staff scientist, Susan K. announced in a faculty meeting, “Marilyn Olmstead is the most cited female chemist in the United States. Why isn’t she a professor in this Department?” We all mobilized over the coming months, under Susan’s lead, and voted to ‘make it so’. Marilyn. I’d never seen her without a smile. We’d see each other sometimes in a hallway at UCD Chemistry, and our eyes said a simple ‘g’day’. Marilyn: a simple nod, an elegant charm. M. I’ll dearly miss you.
– Ted Molinski, Dept. of Chem. & Biochem., UC San Diego.
Further remembrances of Marilyn are coming in via Twitter, which are viewable in the sidebar.