Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

People

Tragedy Strikes at UC Berkeley

Three chemistry graduate students killed in car accident while driving home

by Elizabeth K. Wilson
August 15, 2005 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 83, Issue 33

Adesso
[+]Enlarge
Credit: COURTESY OF UC BERKELEY COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY
Credit: COURTESY OF UC BERKELEY COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY

The recent deaths of three University of California, Berkeley, chemistry graduate students in a fiery car accident has rocked the university's College of Chemistry and left stunned and grieving family, friends, and advisers.

Boussert
[+]Enlarge
Credit: COURTESY OF UC BERKELEY COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY
Credit: COURTESY OF UC BERKELEY COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY
Choy
[+]Enlarge
Credit: COURTESY OF UC BERKELEY COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY
Credit: COURTESY OF UC BERKELEY COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY

Giulia A. Adesso, 26; Benjamin P. Boussert, 27; and Jason L. Choy, 29, were driving home from a party early in the morning on July 16 on Interstate 80 in Berkeley when their car hit a big-rig truck that had just moments before overturned. According to California Highway Patrol officers, the truck was attempting to avoid a reckless driver when it crossed the freeway divide and jackknifed, bursting into flames. When Boussert's 1995 Toyota slammed into the truck, it also caught fire.

Two hundred mourners packed into UC Berkeley's faculty club on July 22 to memorialize Adesso, Boussert, and Choy. "This tragedy has touched everyone in the college," said Charles B. Harris, dean of the College of Chemistry, at the service.

Students, many of whom described the three as among their closest friends, remembered Adesso as "larger than life," Boussert as a generous humanitarian, and Choy as a humble and dedicated scientist. Friends and professors say all three were top-notch scholars, already making contributions to the field.

Berkeley chemistry professor A. Paul Alivisatos, in whose lab Adesso and Boussert worked, fought back tears as he spoke of careers and friendships cut short. "We are all devastated," he said.

Carlos J. Bustamante, a professor of molecular and cell biology, physics, and chemistry at Berkeley, was Choy's adviser. "It's hard to imagine anybody in the lab whose departure will affect us more than Jason's," he said. "We love him dearly."

Adesso, an Italian exchange student from the University of Leece with a master's in physics from the University of Bari, was working on her Ph.D. in Alivisatos' lab. She was using atomic force microscopy to study the mechanical deformation of hollow nanocrystals. She is survived by her parents, Carlo Adesso and Paola Maria Palombella; a sister, Eleonora; and a brother, Giuseppe.

With bachelor's degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering from Louisiana State University, Boussert had been in Alivisatos' lab since 1999 and was studying the spectroscopy of single semiconductor nanorods. Although he had completed enough work to graduate, he had stayed on to finish one more experiment.

Boussert's mother, Anne, is a chemist at Dow in Baton Rouge, La., and his father, Christian, is master scientific glassblower for the College of Basic Sciences at LSU. "I introduced him to glassblowing when he was very young, but I realized he was extraordinarily talented in science," Christian Boussert said in an e-mail. "I am so proud of him." Boussert is also survived by a brother, Joel.

Choy, who received his bachelor's degree from the College of William & Mary, was studying the mechanics of how proteins can be unfolded. He had designed single-molecule experiments to investigate the behavior of the ClpAP protein, Bustamante said. Choy, too, had completed enough work to merit his Ph.D. He is survived by his parents, Norma and Lawrence, and a sister, Allison.

The university awarded both Boussert and Choy posthumous Ph.D.s, and Adesso a certificate of achievement. Boussert's family and friends have set up the Benjamin Boussert Memorial Fund (science. lsu.edu/benbmemorialfund.html), an LSU scholarship program, in his honor.

Michael A. Marletta, chair of Berkeley's chemistry department, said the loss affects not only the students' families, but also their "second, adopted family" at the university. "This has left a hole that will never, ever be filled," he said.

The accident comes on the heels of another student death in the UC Berkeley chemistry community. In March, Jie Wang, a chemistry graduate student in the lab of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory senior scientist Stephen E. Derenzo, was killed in Berkeley when his car was hit by another driver who was trying to outrun police in a car chase.

Steven M. Damo, a graduate student in chemistry professor David E. Wemmer's laboratory, recalled his friendships with the three students. Boussert, he said, thwarted a bicycle robbery while driving Damo home on the night of July 4 by approaching the robbers, scaring them off.

Choy, Damo said, was so dedicated to his work that when Damo finally convinced him to leave the lab early to go out shopping--the night before he died--Choy's labmates stood up and applauded.

On their last night, Damo spent time with Adesso, Boussert, and Choy. As they were leaving, "I went to give Giulia a hug and kiss on the cheek," Damo recalls. "She grabbed me and kissed me again on my other cheek. She said that's what Italians do when they say goodbye."

 

Advertisement

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.