A week ago I found out that a good friend of mine from college had been killed in a car accident in Texas. Michelle Knapp was a year below me at Harvard, and was starting her third year in a PhD program at Texas Tech University, studying Neotropical bat systematics. I hadn't seen Michelle since I graduated three years ago, and I regrettably hadn't been in touch with her in over a year and a half. As I now too am in graduate school in evolutionary biology I had long looked forward to talking about her research, and swapping stories about graduate school, when we met again. Our research interests were gradually converging towards systematics and biogeography (hers in bats, mine in insects), and I was sure that we would have long and fruitful academic, and personal, interactions for many years to come.

Michelle and I shared many mutual friends in Quincy House, and in OEBUG (Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Undergraduates). She was a truly unique person, always in high spirits, kind to everybody, unashamed to be herself. I knew that when we met again, we would be able to pick up where we left off and it would be just like before. It is particularly hard for me to accept that a person who so visibly loved life as did Michelle could be taken from us so suddenly. It is also particularly difficult for me because Michelle is the first close friend I have lost. I will miss her smile, her quirky and often unpredictable sense of humor, her valuable advice, and her encouragement.

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