I met Ashish at Ohio State in the mid-2000s when he was a postdoc and I was a new Master’s student. What I remember from that time is that Ashish was always better dressed than everyone else, and he was very patient with us graduate students. Our paths crossed again at Emory where he really built the BMI program. The early grants he wrote on brain tumors in 2009 funded work that became very influential in our field and launched several careers. At Emory he was also the driving force in creating the BMI PhD program which is excellent and has produced many talented students. He was a stable presence for the junior faculty who were trying to find their way and succeed.More than work I remember our conversations about sports and later about family. We liked to joke about football and to tease each other about our respective teams. We liked to talk about how great fatherhood was, and about spending time with our kids and the remarkable things that they would do.

I do not want Ashish’s illness to occupy space in my memories of him, but I will remember that I never sensed even a hint of self-pity in him over the past few years. He was very much the same person and he was going to enjoy life and the time he had.