May he rest in peace. On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 11:41 PM, Fernando Perez <fperez....@gmail.com>wrote:
> Dear friends and colleagues, > > I am terribly saddened to report that yesterday, August 28 2012 at > 10am, John D. Hunter died from complications arising from cancer > treatment at the University of Chicago hospital, after a brief but > intense battle with this terrible illness. John is survived by his > wife Miriam, his three daughters Rahel, Ava and Clara, his sisters > Layne and Mary, and his mother Sarah. > > Note: If you decide not to read any further (I know this is a long > message), please go to this page for some important information about > how you can thank John for everything he gave in a decade of generous > contributions to the Python and scientific communities: > http://numfocus.org/johnhunter. > > Just a few weeks ago, John delivered his keynote address at the SciPy > 2012 conference in Austin centered around the evolution of matplotlib: > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3lTby5RI54 > > but tragically, shortly after his return home he was diagnosed with > advanced colon cancer. This diagnosis was a terrible discovery to us > all, but John took it with his usual combination of calm and resolve, > and initiated treatment procedures. Unfortunately, the first round of > chemotherapy treatments led to severe complications that sent him to > the intensive care unit, and despite the best efforts of the > University of Chicago medical center staff, he never fully recovered > from these. Yesterday morning, he died peacefully at the hospital > with his loved ones at his bedside. John fought with grace and > courage, enduring every necessary procedure with a smile on his face > and a kind word for all of his caretakers and becoming a loved patient > of the many teams that ended up involved with his case. This was no > surprise for those of us who knew him, but he clearly left a deep and > lasting mark even amongst staff hardened by the rigors of oncology > floors and intensive care units. > > I don't need to explain to this community the impact of John's work, > but allow me to briefly recap, in case this is read by some who don't > know the whole story. In 2002, John was a postdoc at the University > of Chicago hospital working on the analysis of epilepsy seizure data > in children. Frustrated with the state of the existing proprietary > solutions for this class of problems, he started using Python for his > work, back when the scientific Python ecosystem was much, much smaller > than it is today and this could have been seen as a crazy risk. > Furthermore, he found that there were many half-baked solutions for > data visualization in Python at the time, but none that truly met his > needs. Undeterred, he went on to create matplotlib > (http://matplotlib.org) and thus overcome one of the key obstacles for > Python to become the best solution for open source scientific and > technical computing. Matplotlib is both an amazing technical > achievement and a shining example of open source community building, > as John not only created its backbone but also fostered the > development of a very strong development team, ensuring that the > talent of many others could also contribute to this project. The > value and importance of this are now painfully clear: despite having > lost John, matplotlib continues to thrive thanks to the leadership of > Michael Droetboom, the support of Perry Greenfield at the Hubble > Telescope Science Institute, and the daily work of the rest of the > team. I want to thank Perry and Michael for putting their resources > and talent once more behind matplotlib, securing the future of the > project. > > It is difficult to overstate the value and importance of matplotlib, > and therefore of John's contributions (which do not end in matplotlib, > by the way; but a biography will have to wait for another day...). > Python has become a major force in the technical and scientific > computing world, leading the open source offers and challenging > expensive proprietary platforms with large teams and millions of > dollars of resources behind them. But this would be impossible without > a solid data visualization tool that would allow both ad-hoc data > exploration and the production of complex, fine-tuned figures for > papers, reports or websites. John had the vision to make matplotlib > easy to use, but powerful and flexible enough to work in graphical > user interfaces and as a server-side library, enabling a myriad use > cases beyond his personal needs. This means that now, matplotlib > powers everything from plots in dissertations and journal articles to > custom data analysis projects and websites. And despite having left > his academic career a few years ago for a job in industry, he remained > engaged enough that as of today, he is still the top committer to > matplotlib; this is the git shortlog of those with more than 1000 > commits to the project: > > 2145 John Hunter <jdh2...@gmail.com> > 2130 Michael Droettboom <mdb...@gmail.com> > 1060 Eric Firing <efir...@hawaii.edu> > > All of this was done by a man who had three children to raise and who > still always found the time to help those on the mailing lists, solve > difficult technical problems in matplotlib, teach courses and seminars > about scientific Python, and more recently help create the NumFOCUS > foundation project. Despite the challenges that raising three > children in an expensive city like Chicago presented, he never once > wavered from his commitment to open source. But unfortunately now he > is not here anymore to continue providing for their well-being, and I > hope that all those who have so far benefited from his generosity, > will thank this wonderful man who always gave far more than he > received. Thanks to the rapid action of Travis Oliphant, the NumFOCUS > foundation is now acting as an escrow agent to accept donations that > will go into a fund to support the education and care of his wonderful > girls Rahel, Ava and Clara. > > If you have benefited from John's many contributions, please say > thanks in the way that would matter most to him, by helping Miriam > continue the task of caring for and educating Rahel, Ava and Clara. > You will find all the information necessary to make a donation here: > > http://numfocus.org/johnhunter > > Remember that even a small donation helps! If all those who ever use > matplotlib give just a little bit, in the long run I am sure that we > can make a difference. > > If you are a company that benefits in a serious way from matplotlib, > remember that John was a staunch advocate of keeping all scientific > Python projects under the BSD license so that commercial users could > benefit from them without worry. Please say thanks to John in a way > commensurate with your resources (and check how much a yearly matlab > license would cost you in case you have any doubts about the value you > are getting...). > > John's family is planning a private burial in Tennessee, but (most > likely in September) there will also be a memorial service in Chicago > that friends and members of the community can attend. We don't have > the final scheduling details at this point, but I will post them once > we know. > > I would like to again express my gratitude to Travis Oliphant for > moving quickly with the setup of the donation support, and to Eric > Jones (the founder of Enthought and another one of the central figures > in our community) who immediately upon learning of John's plight > contributed resources to support the family with everyday logistics > while John was facing treatment as well as my travel to Chicago to > assist. This kind of immediate urge to come to the help of others > that Eric and Travis displayed is a hallmark of our community. > > Before closing, I want to take a moment to publicly thank the > incredible staff of the University of Chicago medical center. The > last two weeks were an intense and brutal ordeal for John and his > loved ones, but the hospital staff offered a sometimes hard to > believe, unending supply of generosity, care and humanity in addition > to their technical competence. The latter is something we expect from > a first-rate hospital at a top university, where the attending > physicians can be world-renowned specialists in their field. But the > former is often forgotten in a world often ruled by a combination of > science and concerns about regulations and liability. Instead, we > found generous and tireless staff who did everything in their power to > ease the pain, always putting our well being ahead of any mindless > adherence to protocol, patiently tending to every need we had and > working far beyond their stated responsibilities to support us. To > name only one person (and many others are equally deserving), I want > to thank Dr. Carla Moreira, chief surgical resident, who spent the > last few hours of John's life with us despite having just completed a > solid night shift of surgical work. Instead of resting she came to > the ICU and worked to ensure that those last hours were as comfortable > as possible for John; her generous actions helped us through a very > difficult moment. > > It is now time to close this already too long message... > > John, thanks for everything you gave all of us, and for the privilege > of knowing you. > > Fernando. > > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > -- George R. C. Silva Desenvolvimento em GIS http://geoprocessamento.net http://blog.geoprocessamento.net
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