Warren
Warren DeLano
Sadly, Waren DeLano, the author of PyMOL, passed away on Monday night, Nov. 2nd, 2009. He will be sorely missed.
Here is the note posted to the CCP4 list by his mentor, Axel Brunger.
Dear CCP4 Community:
I write today with very sad news about Dr. Warren Lyford DeLano.
I was informed by his family today that Warren suddenly passed away at home on Tuesday morning, November 3rd.
While at Yale, Warren made countless contributions to the computational tools
and methods developed in my laboratory (the X-PLOR and CNS programs),
including the direct rotation function, the first prediction of helical coiled coil
structures, the scripting and parsing tools that made CNS a universal computational
crystallography program.
He then joined Dr. Jim Wells laboratory at USCF and Genentech where he pursued a Ph.D. in biophysics, discovering some of the principles that govern protein-protein interactions.
Warren then made a fundamental contribution to biological sciences by creating the Open Source molecular graphics program PyMOL that is widely used throughout the world. Nearly all publications that display macromolecular structures use PyMOL.
Warren was a strong advocate of freely available software and the Open Source movement.
Warren's family is planning to announce a memorial service, but arrangements have not yet been made. I will send more information as I receive it.
Please join me in extending our condolences to Warren's family.
Sincerely yours, Axel Brunger
Axel T. Brunger Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology Stanford University
Links
- Post a message of your memories of Warren on this blog that his family set up.
- Pics of Warren
User Comments
If anyone would like, please feel fee to add any comments/memories you have, here.
- I am very saddened to have lost a friend and mentor. Warren was a great influence on us all.
- Tree 19:45, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
- I have been in utter disbelief over the past week. His love for science was clear and his mission to make PyMOL the best that it could be was unparalleled. I wish I had the opportunity to meet him in person.
- slaw 11:38, 9 Novermber 2009 (EST)