[Air-l] Dr. Pat Radin Has Passed Away

[halavais at u.washington.edu]

It is indeed a sad time. Rob Kling was among those who introduced me to this field when I was an undergraduate at UC Irvine. I was lucky to be there when the intersection between the social sciences and computer sciences was a rare occurrence on American campuses. I crossed paths with Rob at a symposium on scholarly communication a couple of weeks before his death, and had wanted to find some way of thanking him for that early encouragement, but couldn't find the words.

Pat and I were colleagues in the Ph.D. program at the University of Washington, and given our shared interests, we would often talk about the direction of the field and sometimes lecture in each other's classes. She had an extensive network of friends and colleagues, and was never shy about connecting together those whom she thought would share interests. The last time I heard from her, earlier this year, it was to introduce me to someone she thought would be able to help me with some of my research on blogs. 

Both of these people, in very different ways, affected the direction of my studies and the way I think about the academic world. I know I am not alone in this--their personal influence was widely felt in our community. Since I have missed the opportunity to thank the two of them directly, I thank them here. They both helped more people than they could have ever known.

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     |         Alexander Campbell Halavais         |
     |    alex.halavais.net, alex at halavais.net     |
     | Assistant Professor, School of Informatics  |
     |  State University of New York at Buffalo    |
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-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-admin at aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin at aoir.org]On Behalf Of Michael Gurstein
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2003 5:50 AM
To: Air-L
Cc: kennedy at alamedanet.net
Subject: [Air-l] Dr. Pat Radin Has Passed Away
Importance: High


This seems to be the season for sad announcements.

I'm forwarding the below to the AiR list as many of you will have met or know of Pat Radin.

Although relatively new as an academic, Pat had a long career as a science journalist specializing in new technologies.

I got to know her when in the course of doing her Ph.D. work she approached me as someone with overlapping interests who lived near her research contacts in Nova Scotia.  Pat's research  focussing on the creation and on-going activities of an on-line support group for breast cancer survivors. 

Her research, typically for her, was lively, engaged and socially oriented, as concerned with the benefits that she might provide as with the academic outcomes of her work. Again typically for her she made friends with the group and eventually became a trusted advisor for them.

Pat was a big person, big heart, big voice, big presence in the world.  I'll miss her as a dear friend and as a valued collaborator.

Mike Gurstein