From Ani Flevaris

Shlomo was my second graduate advisor and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him, and to know him. I met Shlomo during my first year in graduate school. He was visiting Berkeley to work with my graduate advisor, Lynn Robertson, and I quickly became interested in working on a project with him. That initial project led to a long collaboration that lasted throughout my graduate career. Shlomo was an amazing advisor. He was so passionate about everything he did, and his undying enthusiasm for research was contagious. It was a joy to talk about ideas with him. He listened thoughtfully to alternative viewpoints, and was happy to have a dialogue, offering an inspiring, insightful, and critical perspective. Even in the years when he was living in Israel, he was always available via messenger or Skype, and he always had time for me.  I can remember countless evenings when a random thought or research question would pop into my mind, and I would type “Shlomo?” on instant messenger. This would always lead to a long thoughtful and exciting conversation, and often to a new experiment idea. No matter how busy he was, or what time it was, or where on the globe he was - he always had time for his students, and he treated us as his colleagues. My ideas were taken seriously, but always met with critical thought, and this helped me to become a better scientist.

Aside from being an amazing scientist and mentor, Shlomo was a warm and kind friend. He would ask me about my life and would share stories about his. Whenever he visited Berkeley he always made sure to invite me to dinner to catch up. He truly cared, and looked out for me in a very paternal way. I still spoke to him often, and even to this day I would contact him to let him know about an exciting piece of data or to hear about what he was working on lately. I had just spoken with him a few weeks ago about how I was looking forward to seeing him at the upcoming CSAIL conference, and he told me about how excited he was to show me his latest research and to hear about my own. He was full of life and extremely happy. Shlomo taught me so much throughout the years and I have so many happy memories of him. I will cherish those memories, as well as the impact he has had on me as a scientist and as a person.