It is with much sadness we share that our Galaxy Australia collaborator Simon Gladman died suddenly late last month.
Simon was the technical lead of Galaxy Australia, involving several QCIF staff as project members, and a staff member at Melbourne Bioinformatics.
In almost five years, QCIF and Melbourne Bioinformatics have built Galaxy Australia into a highly successful national service.
QCIF Head of Computational Biology and Product Owner of Galaxy Australia Dr Gareth Price said Simon was a very active and respected member of the global Galaxy community. “Simon was there from inception and his work to industrialise the service leaves a legacy to be proud of,” said Gareth.
“Recently, it was my honour to share the stage with Simon at the Galaxy Community Conference 2022 in Minneapolis, USA and announce that Brisbane is to host the 2023 conference. Bringing GCC to Australia was to be a high point of Simon’s Galaxy contributions and we’ll seek to honour that in the planning for GCC2023.
“Simon was a passionate believer in open science and the opportunities Galaxy offered its users. This belief showed in his interactions with the Galaxy Australia team and with its users. Simon helped to build a national team effortlessly, he welcomed new members in, mentored and inspired them in his approach to enabling good science. I too benefited from this kind and open approach to working collaboratively.
“Simon will be missed greatly by myself and by the Galaxy Australia team. He impacted on all our lives and genuinely helped make research in Australia an easy task for our many skilled scientists to undertake.”
Any questions about Galaxy Australia, or if you would like to share an interaction you had with Simon related to the service, please email help@genome.edu.au.
Australian BioCommons is also collecting thoughts and photos of Simon for a memorial webpage to pay tribute to him and his valuable contributions. Please email christina@biocommons.org.au.
For further words about Simon, please see the announcement on the Australian BioCommons webpage.
Our deepest condolences to Simon’s family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances and all the communities he was involved in.
