In Memoriam: May 2026

David Botstein, whose pioneering research developed new methods for mapping the human genome, died Feb. 27 at age 83. Through studies of yeast that identified markers of nearby genes, Botstein “cracked open the biggest problem in human genetics,” biologist Eric Lander ’78, the founding director of the Broad Institute, told The New York Times. That was in the late 1970s; by 2003, when Botstein began his decade as director of Princeton’s Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, researchers from 20 universities and centers had sequenced more than 90% of the human genome. In a career that bridged academia and biotech, Botstein also held appointments at MIT and Stanford and scientific executive roles at Genentech and Calico, from which he retired in 2023.

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Christopher Sims

Denise Applewhite / Princeton University

Christopher Sims, who won the Nobel Prize in economics for modeling and analyzing the relationship between monetary and fiscal policy, died March 14 at age 83. Sims spent more than two decades at Princeton before transferring to emeritus status in 2021 and “was an absolute superstar” among economists, professor and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Alan Blinder ’67 said in a University obituary. Colleagues described Sims as graceful, kind, and generous with his time. His statistical models informed the work of central bankers and policymakers long before he shared the Nobel with longtime friend Thomas Sargent of New York University in 2011. At the time of the announcement, Sims and Sargent were co-teaching a Princeton graduate seminar on advanced macroeconomics.