“Farewell to a lovely guy, a great scientist, and a good friend.”

It is desperately sad to hear the news of Mark passing away, before his time. He was always a pleasure to meet and I always appreciated his calm, thoughtful, presence. I knew him most closely in the 1980's when we were both at the ETH in Zurich. It is perhaps not widely appreciated how vital Mark was to the collaboration between the Ernst and Wüthrich labs in those days. There was an intense mixture of collaboration and rivalry between the two groups with two very strong and very ambitious personalities constantly on the verge of open conflict. Both of them knew they were in the running for a Nobel prize and I think both of them feared that the other one would win the prize and leave them out in the cold. Mark was one of the very few people in the world who could stay calm while navigating this minefield and keep the science on track for everyone's benefit. In the end, as we all know, both Ernst and Wüthrich were awarded the prize they craved, and I think Mark should be given a lot of credit for that. In his own quiet and modest way, he would never have acknowledged that, of course.

So farewell to a lovely guy, a great scientist, and a good friend.

Many condolences to those he has left behind. It's very sad.

Yours
Malcolm