News & Resources
Event Blog & Archives
Stay updated with all the latest news, insights, and highlights from our Divi event. Here, you’ll find in-depth articles, speaker spotlights, behind-the-scenes stories, and tips to help you make the most of your Divi experience.
Yoram Kaufman
Yoram Kaufman, age 57 (one day before his 58th birthday), died May 31, 2006 when he was struck by an automobile while riding his bicycle near the Goddard center's campus in Greenbelt. Dr. Kaufman began working at the space flight center in 1979 and spent his entire...
Lee Jong-woo
Lee Jong-woo, age 61, died on May 22, 2006 after suffering a blood clot on the brain. Lee was spearheading the organization's fight against global threats from bird flu, AIDS and other infectious diseases. WHO director-general since 2003, Lee was his country's top...
Leonid Strachunsky
Leonid Strachunsky died on June 8, 2005 after being hit on the head with a champagne bottle. Strachunsky specialized in creating microbes resistant to biological weapons. Strachunsky was found dead in his hotel room in Moscow, where he had come from Smolensk en route...
Robert J. Lull
Robert J. Lull, age 66, died on May 19, 2005 of multiple stab wounds. Despite his missing car and apparent credit card theft, homicide Inspector Holly Pera said investigators aren't convinced that robbery was the sole motive for Lull's killing. She said a robber would...
David Banks
David Banks, age 55, died on May 8, 2005. Banks, based in North Queensland, died in an airplane crash, along with 14 others. He was known as an Agro Genius inventing the mosquito trap used for cattle. Banks was the principal scientist with quarantine authority,...
Todd Kauppila
Todd Kauppila, age 41, died on May 8, 2005 of hemorrhagic pancreatitis at the Los Alamos hospital, according to the state medical examiner's office. A picture of him was not available to due secret nature of his work. His death came two days after Kauppila publicly...
Dr. Douglas James Passaro
Dr. Douglas James Passaro, age 43, died on April 18, 2005 from unknown cause in Oak Park, Illinois. Dr. Passaro was a brilliant epidemiologist who wanted to unlock the secrets of a spiral-shaped bacteria that causes stomach disease. He was a professor who challenged...
Geetha Angara
Geetha Angara, age 43, died on February 8, 2005. This formerly missing chemist was found in a Totowa, New Jersey water treatment plant's tank. Angara, 43, of Holmdel, was last seen on the night of Feb. 8 doing water quality tests at the Passaic Valley Water Commission...
Jeong H. Im
Jeong H. Im, age 72, died on January 7, 2005. Korean Jeong H. Im, died of multiple stab wounds to the chest before firefighters found in his body in the trunk of a burning car on the third level of the Maryland Avenue Garage. A retired research assistant professor at...
Tom Thorne & Beth Williams
Tom Thorne, age 64; Beth Williams, age 53; died December 29, 2004. Two wild life scientists, Husband-and-wife wildlife veterinarians who were nationally prominent experts on chronic wasting disease and brucellosis were killed in a snowy-weather crash on U.S. 287 in...
Taleb Ibrahim al-Daher
Taleb Ibrahim al-Daher died on December 21, 2004. Iraqi nuclear scientist was shot dead north of Baghdad by unknown gunmen. He was on his way to work at Diyala University when armed men opened fire on his car as it was crossing a bridge in Baqouba, 57 km northeast of...
John R. La Montagne
John R. La Montagne, age 61, died on November 2, 2004. Montagne Died while in Mexico, no cause stated, later disclosed as pulmonary embolism. He was a PhD and Head of US Infectious Diseases unit under Tommie Thompson. Montagne Was NIAID Deputy Director and an expert...
Matthew Allison
Matthew Allison, age 32, died on October 13, 2004 in a fatal explosion of a car parked at an Osceola County, Florida Wal-Mart store. It was no accident, Local 6 News has learned. Allison was found inside a burned car. Witnesses said the man left the store at about 11...
Michael Petrich
Michael Perich, age 46, died on October 11, 2003. He was killed in a single-vehicle car accident. The LSU West Nile research scientist was wearing his seat belt and drowned. He was an LSU professor who helped fight the spread of the West Nile virus. Perich, who was...
Mohammed Toki Hussein al-Talakani
Mohammed Toki Hussein al-Talakani, age 40, died on September 5, 2004. The Iraqi nuclear scientist was shot dead in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. He was a practicing nuclear physics since 1984.
Professor John Clark
Professor John Clark, Age 52, died on August 12, 2004. He was found hanged in his holiday home. He was an expert in animal science and biotechnology where he developed techniques for the genetic modification of livestock; this work paved the way for the birth, in...
Dr. Bassem al-Mudares
Dr. Bassem al-Mudares died on July 21, 2004. His mutilated body was found in the city of Samarra, Iraq. He was a Ph.D chemist and had been tortured before being killed. He was a drug company worker who had a chemistry doctorate.
Dr. John Badwey
Dr. John Badwey, age 54, died on July 21, 2004. Dr. Badwey was a Scientist and accidental politician when he opposed disposal of sewage waste program of exposing humans to sludge. Badwey suddenly developed pneumonia like symptoms then died in two weeks. He was a...
Professor Stephen Tabet
Professor Stephen Tabet, age 42, died on July 6, 2004 from an unknown illness. He was an associate professor and epidemiologist at the University of Washington. A world-renowned HIV doctor and researcher who worked with HIV patients in a vaccine clinical trial for the...
Dr. Larry Bustard
Dr. Larry Bustard, age 53, died July 2, 2004 from unknown causes. He was a Sandia scientist in the Department of Energy who helped develop a foam spray to clean up congressional buildings and media sites during the anthrax scare in 2001. He worked at Sandia National...
Edward Hoffman
Edward Hoffman, age 62, died July 1, 2004 from unknown causes. Hoffman was a professor and a scientist who also held leadership positions within the UCLA medical community. He worked to develop the first human PET scanner in 1973 at Washington University in St. Louis.
John Mullen
John Mullen, age 67, died June 29, 2004. John Mullen was a Nuclear physicist poisoned with a huge dose of arsenic. He was a nuclear research scientist with McDonnell Douglas. Police investigating will not say how Mullen was exposed to the arsenic or where it came...
Dr. Paul Norman
Dr. Paul Norman, age 52, died on June 27, 2004. He was from Salisbury Wiltshire and killed when the single-engine Cessna 206 he was piloting crashed in Devon. He was an expert in chemical and biological weapons. He traveled the world lecturing on defending against the...
Dr. Assefa Tulu
Dr. Assefa Tulu, age 45, died June 24, 2004. Dr. Tulu joined the health department in 1997 and served for five years as the county's lone epidemiologist. He was charged with tracking the health of the country, including the spread of diseases, such as syphilis, AIDS...
Thomas Gold
Thomas Gold, age 84, died June 22, 2004. Austrian born Thomas Gold famous over the years for a variety of bold theories that flout conventional wisdom and reported in his 1998 book, "The Deep Hot Biosphere," the idea challenges the accepted wisdom of how oil and...
Antonina Presnyakova
Antonina Presnyakova, age 46, died May 25, 2004. A Russian scientist at a former Soviet biological weapons laboratory in Siberia died after an accident with a needle laced with ebola. Scientists and officials said the accident had raised concerns about safety and...
Dr. Eugene Mallove
Dr. Eugene Mallove, age 56, died May 14, 2004. Autopsy confirmed Mallove died as a result of several blunt-force injuries to his head and neck. Ruled as murder. Found at the end of his driveway. Alt. Energy Expert who was working on viable energy alternative program...
William T. McGuire
William T. McGuire, age 39. Found May 5, 2004, last seen late April 2004. His body was found in three suitcases floating in Chesapeake Bay. He was a NJ University Professor and Senior programmer analyst and adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology...
Ilsley Ingram
Ilsley Ingram, age 84, died on April 12, 2004 from unknown causes. Ingram was Director of the Supraregional Hemophilia Reference Centre and the Supraregional Centre for the Diagnosis of Bleeding Disorders at the St. Thomas Hospital in London. Although his age is most...
Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly
Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly died April 2004. This distinguished Iraqi chemistry professor died in American custody from a sudden hit to the back of his head caused by blunt trauma. It was uncertain exactly how he died, but someone had hit him from behind, possibly with...