Professor Lester Packer passed away Friday, 27th July 2018.
Lester joined the Editorial Board of Genes and Nutrition and he supported the activity of the journal throughout our history.
We need not detail here his professional history and his scientific achievements, which are widely known in the fields of free radicals and redox biology. The importance of Lester in this field goes beyond the number of papers and book chapters he published. He was one of the earliest leaders in the field and as a pioneer he was able to generate incredible momentum for the research and to attract the interest of a wide consort of stakeholders involved in human health and disease research, application, and policy. It is easy to conclude that his contribution to the diffusion of the importance of free radicals and antioxidants in health and disease has been uniquely pivotal.
These few notes, however, are not solely intended to address his scientific activity. Many members of the Editorial Board, including one of the Editors-in-Chief, had the chance and the fortune to join the “Packer Lab” at the Molecular and Cell Biology department of the University of California, Berkeley.
We all have a clear memory of his contagious energy and enthusiasm. We all recall him gently orchestrating the work of dozens of students, post docs, and visiting scientists with a natural sympathy and sense of fair play and, less frequently, “cracking the whip” to tame a few in a highly competitive environment. His office door was always open and he was indeed a great mentor and a reference for our eventual professional careers. We all have clear memories of our experience as passengers on his boat, Lester at the wheel, navigating San Francisco Bay.
The combination of his scientific contributions, his intellectual generosity and human peculiarities rendered Lester a “unique” person in our life.
We will not forget him.
sit tibi terra levis, Lester
(may the ground be light to you, Lester)
Fabio Virgili, on behalf of
Matilde Maiorino
Giuseppe Poli
Gerald Rimbach
Chandan Sen
Fulvio Ursini
Giuseppe Valacchi
