In memoriam: Kuan-Teh Jeang, 1958-2013

Earlier this week, I was working on slides for our departmental research seminar where I would present results from our collaborative research project we have with a clinical group at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The talk was informatively if dryly titled, "Immunomodulatory Effects of Vitamin D3 Supplementation in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults with HIV/AIDS." As I prepared, emails starting arriving in my inbox from all over the world with news of the sad and sudden death of Kuan-Teh Jeang. I decided to include some brief remarks at the beginning of the seminar. I hope in some small way these thoughts could honor Teh's memory and encourage the young researchers in the audience. Text of what I shared this morning are below.

Before I start today’s seminar, I would like to offer some brief remarks in memory of Kuan-Teh Jeang who died last Sunday, January 27 at age 54. I was a post-doctoral fellow in his lab at the NIH from 1993 to 1997 working on the molecular biology of HIV.

This photograph (shown above) is from 2012 when he gave the George Khoury lecture in October. This named lecture was started at the NIH in 1994 to recognize the highest levels of scientific research and to remember Dr. Khoury who was one of the bright stars of the NIH who died much too soon. It should be noted that Teh started his scientific career as a post-doctoral fellow in George Khoury’s lab about 25 years ago. And so giving the lecture was both a tremendous scientific and personal occasion for Teh. Who could have known that three months later another one of NIH’s leading lights would pass away much too soon. Suffice to say, Teh’s scientific accomplishments in the field of the molecular biology of human retroviruses were numerous and are best detailed in official remembrances of his life.

I’ll simply say, it was a tremendous honor to work at the NIH for those four years. Teh was the energetic and tireless leader of our research group dedicated to peeling back what was unknown about HTLV and HIV. On a personal level, since our group was composed of post-docs who came from far and wide from Washington DC, he generously gave personal attention and practical help to us, his incoming post-docs. Those simple kindnesses helped us settle into our lives in and around Bethesda.

May God rest his soul and comfort his wife and three children who remain.

Remarks by Michael Gottesman at Retrovirology.
Post at BioMedCentral.
Comment from Journal of the International AIDS Society.
Statement at Cell and Bioscience.
Notice at the NIAID/NIH web site.

As part of the network of lab alumni, I've received notice that two longer recollections will be published at Cell and Bioscience and Journal of Biomedical Sciences. I will link to them when they go live.

UPDATES:
Obituary at Journal of Biomedical Sciences.
In memoriam at Cell and Bioscience.
Editorial item at Cell and Bioscience.