[From Peter Suber's Open Access News: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2005_06_05_fosblogarchive.html#a111841815966459955 ]
T.B. Rajashekar Dr. T.B. Rajashekar, a leader of the OA movement in India, died in a car accident on June 3. Here's a short obituary by Vikas Kamat: http://www.kamat.com/vikas/blog.php?BlogID=850 "Dr. T.B. Rajashekar who was serving as Associate Chairman, National Center for Science Information (NCSI) at the Indian Institute of Science died in an automobile accident last week. http://144.16.72.189/raja/ "A brilliant information scientist, Dr. Rajashekhar had in recent years spearheaded the Institutional Repositories Movement in India as part of the Open Access (OA) Movement. http://www.kamat.com/vikas/blog.php?BlogID=714 "His articles on Digital Libraries and Metadata aggregation were both educational and inspiring. In fact I was browsing through his article "Towards a Global Digital Library for Education and Research" published in "Turning Pages --Reflections in Info-times" when I got the news. http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/pipermail/lis-forum/2005-June/002315.html "Rajashekar obtained his doctorate in library and information science from University of Pune. Prior to joining NCSI, he had worked at National Informatics Center (New Delhi), at the British Council Library, and as a consultant to UNESCO on e-learning systems. He was the architect of the J-Gate electronic journals management and access system popular in India. "We will miss him." Posted by Peter Suber at 11:35 AM. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note added by Stevan Harnad Raja founded and was well on the way to filling the Open Access Eprints Archive at the Indian Institute of Science. http://archives.eprints.org/eprints.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Feprints.iisc.ernet.in%2F He was also helping other research institutions in India to found and fill their own OA Archives. He was hosting and collaborating with OA activists from around the world such as the University of Toronto's Leslie Chan and the University of Southampton's Leslie Carr, and he was reporting his progress and his plans at international meetings such as the Current Science Festschrift for Eugene Garfield, in Chennai September 2000 http://tejas.serc.iisc.ernet.in/~currsci/ and the NASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications) and WAME (World Association of Medical Editors) and JPGM (Journal of Postgraduate Medicine) Golden Jubilee in Mumbai September 2004. http://www.jpgmonline.com/goldcon.asp Raja's energy, resourcefulness, focus and determination will be greatly missed. And he will not live to have seen the fruits of his efforts. But his pioneering role in providing Open Access to India and to the world will not be forgotten. Heartfelt condolences to the members of his family. With their bitter loss they also have occasion to feel defiant pride.