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IFS Honors the Life of Professor Rune Liminga
Published: 2018-10-09
In this feature of the blog IFS Honors the Life of Professor Rune Liminga, a long-time friend of IFS.
Dr. Nighisty Ghezae, Director
It is with deep sadness that we have learned about the passing of Professor Rune Liminga, a long-time friend of IFS as an organization and many of us as individuals. Rune was a part-time staff member working in the area of natural products in the late 1990s. He then served as an IFS advisor and devoted much of his time to evaluating research proposals. The last event that Rune helped IFS to organize was the Latin America-focused IFS/OPCW Workshop on Chemistry in Nature – Natural Resources: Chemical, Biological and Environmental Aspects, in March 2008 in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Another IFS advisor, Hermann Niemeyer of the University of Chile, was a Fellow of the International Seminar in Chemistry from 1973-1974 when Rune was its Director. Since 1985, Hermann has received support from the Seminar either directly to his laboratory, or to LANBIO, a scientific network he helped to create.
In tribute to Rune, Hermann composed the following words to be read at his funeral on 9 October 2018 by our staff member Ingrid Leemans.
I write these words with great sorrow. Sorrow because of Rune’s departure but also sorrow because I would have wished to have been with him once more to tell him again how grateful I am to him, how much I owe to his generosity and wisdom. He was by far the most important person behind my career as a scientist.
He taught me to be firm on the pursuit of goals, and at the same time flexible to change course when needed.
He taught me to strive to be ever better in science and to go ever deeper into the problems I addressed.
He taught me to be demanding and at the same time forgiving.
He taught me to be frugal and at the same time generous.
I don’t claim to have learnt all lessons. Too many were received! But the little I have learnt from them has made me a better scientist and a more complete and happier person.
A great man has left us. Physically. He will remain forever in the minds and hearts of those who knew him.
These sentiments are also an expression of the IFS family’s feelings, shared as well by numerous IFS-supported early-career scientists who benefitted from the thoughtful guidance of IFS advisors such as Rune and his peers.
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