Chair of Biology Piali Sengupta wrote:
It is with great sadness that I am writing to let you know that John Lisman passed away last night. He passed away peacefully surrounded by his family. John was an influential and creative scientist and a very good friend to all of us in Biology and Neuroscience. We are glad that we had the opportunity to honor him and hear from him at the Volen Retreat last week. He will be much missed.
John’s talk at the Volen Retreat earlier this month, delivered by video conference, is available here: The critical role of CaMKII in memory storage: 6 key physiological and behavioral tests
The family has asked that in lieu of flowers people consider contributing to the John Lisman Memorial Scholarship
Our obituary for John Lisman in Neuron:https://t.co/X6577ygfZH
— Ole Jensen (@neuosc) December 6, 2017
A key feature of my grad school experience @BrandeisScience: John, bumbling by, grinning, dragging me out for early AM coffee: "Tell me what's wrong with my thinking here, Tim" What a privilege it's been. Good bye John Lisman and thank you for the ride. https://t.co/WJH6wptb4Z pic.twitter.com/jXHFAamLir
— Tim Vogels (@TPVogels) December 7, 2017
Earlier tweets from past students and colleagues:
Sadly, our friend and colleague John Lisman is gone. A week ago he gave a stunning talk at Volen tribute from his hospital bed.
— Turrigiano Lab (@TurrigianoLab) October 21, 2017
22 years ago John Lisman took me under his wing and taught me all I know about research. A friend and brilliant mentor. I owe him all.
— Ole Jensen (@neuosc) October 21, 2017
RIP John Lisman, one of the greats of neuroscience, a kind & decent man, a bold & original thinker, a Renaissance idea-man, will miss him! pic.twitter.com/6zOVx2L1VC
— Kepecs Lab (@KepecsLab) October 21, 2017
Reading John’s papers as an undergrad is what got me into Neuroscience and led me to do my PhD at Brandeis. https://t.co/E7BQrFO5fD
— Alanna Watt (@alanna_j_watt) October 21, 2017
John Lisman @BrandeisU was my first neuro rotation Prof. He was patient, brilliant, encouraging & funny. I will never forget him. https://t.co/nX3hxiemRR
— Tepring Piquado, PhD (@DrTepring) October 22, 2017
My visual memory of John Lisman: his CAMKII solar car @MBLScience July 4th parade. Memories are made of this. pic.twitter.com/FQTT72xOZK
— Daniel Colón-Ramos (@dacolon) October 21, 2017
Tremendous loss. Lisman was the kind of neuro "statesman" who wld make time to talk starry-eyed grad students & left us better off for it. https://t.co/mvO7IsSVa4
— Uma Karmarkar (@uma_karma) October 21, 2017
Very sad news-John Lisman passed away. Our deepest condolences go out to his personal & science families. We'll miss him & his big ideas. https://t.co/546QCu48Az
— Laura Colgin (@ColginLab) October 21, 2017
So sad to have lost neuro-legend John Lisman, but grateful to have hosted him here last May- pic at our Synapse Club with Richard Weinberg pic.twitter.com/9BEYQ8Yjxl
— Serena Dudek (@Serenadudette) October 21, 2017
This is so sad. John Lisman was one of those with whom it was always wonderful to argue. We've lost a treasure. RIP. https://t.co/B266rrvcOb
— Leslie M Kay (@LKayUChicago) October 22, 2017
RIP John – we are, and still will be, so influenced by your stunning thoughts and ideas. Will never forget the discussions we had. pic.twitter.com/sJRDpcAIiM
— Kei Igarashi (@kei_m_igarashi) October 22, 2017
John Lisman, one of the few great theoreticians of the brain has died. Here he is discussing theta-gamma coding: https://t.co/dreY7HhlvI pic.twitter.com/vlg6uJqM8I
— paul verschure (@PaulVerschure) October 23, 2017
John Lisman, neuronscience luminary, talented photographer just left us… His ideas moved countless research programs https://t.co/pXuGw3zr8y
— Alcino J Silva (@alcinojsilva) October 22, 2017
A work of art by John Lisman. He gave it to me on my 50th. Gonna miss you, John. pic.twitter.com/grMs5oyyEM
— Earl K. Miller (@MillerLabMIT) October 24, 2017
Delighted to watch John Lisman's memorial service at @BrandeisU. So many great stories. I'm also waiting for that last e-mail … pic.twitter.com/juCwiGqxku
— César Rennó-Costa (@rennocosta) October 26, 2017
We also received this longer tribute from Michael Kahana:
I was greatly saddened to hear the news that John Lisman passed away this weekend. I spoke with him just a few weeks ago and was greatly looking forward to his upcoming visit to Penn. Although he told me of his illness, I was hoping to have a little more time with my good colleague and friend. Upon learning of his passing, I wanted to write down a few memories to share with friends and colleagues who knew John well.
I vividly recall when I first met John, at an evening gathering at his home that I attended just prior to joining the faculty at Brandeis (this may have been a precursor to the famous Boston Hippocampus meetings that John helped organize). The meeting was teaming with energy, and John welcomed me warmly, introducing me to other scientists in the room. John had recently become very interested in human memory, and as a newly minted PhD working on memory, John took me under his wings, teaching me about neurophysiology and quizzing me enthusiastically about the psychology of memory, a field that John was keen to master as quickly as possible.
John was a polymath, bursting with creative energy, and capable of seeing connections between diverse fields. Over the subsequent decade at Brandeis, John had an enormous influence on my career and research direction, introducing me to theta and gamma rhythms, and teaching me about countless topics in neurophysiology. On a typical day in the Volen Center, John would rush into my lab eager to share a new discovery or ask me a question about a study of memory that he had just learned about. He had this incredibly-infectious scientific curiosity, and he was always abundantly generous with his time, both with me and my students.
I particularly remember the early days when John was developing the LIJ (Lisman-Idiart-Jensen) model, and trying to learn as much as he could about the Sternberg task and other related phenomena in the field of human memory. Although I frequently challenged John on this front, he kept at it, continuing to refine the model together with Ole Jensen until they were able to answer many of the most serious objections. I just saw that the original paper was cited more than 1,200 times, and several of the follow up papers are well into the many hundreds of citations. This is arguably the most creative neurophysiological model of a cognitive function, and the best example of an attempt to link detailed physiological measurements to behavioral measures of human memory.
We have all lost a great friend, colleague, and mentor, and the field of neuroscience has lost one of its shining stars. I want to share my deepest sympathies with all of you who knew and loved John.
May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Mike Kahana
Thomas Reese shared his thoughts:
John, your intellect and spirit lighted more than 30 summers my life at the MBL in Woods Hole. You were a reference point for neurobiology there, holding court at your favorite table at the Kidd, at the far end of the dock. A cherished invitation to lunch at exactly 12:00, with interesting synapse people passing though, or to hear a deluge of you new ideas about how a synapse is, or should be, put together. Occasionally an invitation to dinner outside, behind your house with talk of many things…..joined by the delightful Natashia and other interesting people….discussing well into the night.
If Woods Hole is a little scientific Athens, you were our Socrates, lurking on Milfield. questioning in your disarming, open open way…bringing out the truth. You were our Dogenes. searching Gardner Road for a man with the honest truth.
John, ,…John..it will seem empty there without you…you
will be very much missed..Tom Reese. NIH
