from Padhraic Smyth

I will never forget the first lecture course I taught, back around 1995. The course was on pattern recognition. In the very first lecture, there was a very animated and enthusiastic student providing suggestions and comments throughout the lecture - it was almost as if there were two of us lecturing - I was glad for the helpful input. I wondered if the the student was perhaps a first-year undergraduate, or maybe even from high-school - he seemed much too young to be a grad student. After the class, he came up and introduced himself, and showed me several neat ideas on the chalkboard to help in presenting the material. He was a Phd student and his name was Sam. For the rest of that quarter he aced every problem I could think of. I soon realized that I wasn't teaching Sam but he was teaching me. I was very fortunate to know Sam for the next 15 years and benefit from his terrific insights and incredibly generous personality. Its so sad that he is no longer with us, we have lost a brilliant mind and an amazing person.