Ian Sussex died May 10. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Kerk of Guilford CT, brother Neil Sussex and family in New Zealand.

Ian Sussex was an accomplished scientist who was instrumental in founding the field of plant developmental biology. His main research focused on plant meristems and the analysis of how meristems are initiated, become functionally organized and allocate cells to tissues and organs. He was born in Auckland New Zealand in 1927. His PhD was from the University of Manchester and Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University before coming to Yale. He and his many laboratory students used molecular cellular and genetic approaches. Indeed over the years Ian's lab had several dozen graduate students, post docs and visiting scientists from all over the world come to Yale and the University of California at Berkeley to work on projects of their own design in Ian's laboratory. He had well over 100 publications. Many of his students went on to achieve prominent positions in the field of plant development largely due to Ian's unique mentoring.

Ian fostered and egalitarian community with students emerging as self-directed individuals prepared to mature into accomplished scientists. His impact rippled through so many.

Ian was recognized by many prizes honors and awards to acknowledge his contribution to the growing field of plant development. These include among many, The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Developmental Biology and the Yale Class Teaching Award. Ian truly enjoyed teaching and being a mentor to his many students and colleagues. He organized several conferences and taught and organized the summer course on plants at Cold Spring Harbor labs for several years.

Ian was not only a brilliant scientist and devoted teacher and mentor. He was a very accomplished and talented marathon runner and ran in marathons all over the world with a good friend and colleague from Yale. He finished several in fewer than 3 hours when he was over 55 years old.

Yes, Ian truly made an impact though research and teaching and just being the strong quiet man that he was. He has been described by many as a true gentleman. He will be sorely missed. To sign the online guestbook please visit hawleylincolnmemorial.com.