Joep Lange
| 18 July, 2014 | Samuel Winthrop |
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It is with great sadness that we note the tragic death of Professor Joep Lange, F1000Prime Section Head for HIV Infection & AIDS: Clinical, in the Malaysian Airline flight MH17 disaster yesterday.
Professor Lange was Professor of Internal Medicine at the Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, and held a number of prestigious positions, including Senior Scientific Advisor to the International Antiviral Therapy Evaluation Centre, co-director of the HIV Netherlands Australia Research Collaboration (HIV-NAT) and former president of the International AIDS Society (IAS), 2002-2004.
Professor Lange and his partner, Jacqueline van Tongeren, were en route from Amsterdam to the 20th International Aids Conference in Melbourne, Australia, when their flight went down over Eastern Ukraine. Whilst the passenger manifest has not yet been released at the time of writing, if the reports that as many as a hundred researchers and activists in the HIV and AIDS fields were on board are confirmed, it would represent a terrible loss in the fight against HIV/AIDS. At the IAS’ press conference on the MH17 crash, spokesman Michael Kessler spoke of how the community had “truly lost a giant”.
A statement from Professor Marcel Levi of the Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, can be read here (in Dutch).
At this time, our thoughts are with Professor Lange’s colleagues, friends and family, and those of the other passengers on board flight MH17. Our deepest condolences and sympathy to all those affected by this terrible tragedy.
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This is very sad news indeed. Our thoughts and prayers are with Professor Lange’s family, friends, present and former colleagues and students. Our deepest condolences go out to everyone who has been affected by this tragedy.
I am the sister of Dr. Jonathan Mann who like Joep Lange was a brilliant and humanitarian man in the HIV/AIDS world and a positive force for human rights in the world. My heart goes out to all of your family and friends and colleagues who have perished. Having lived through a sadly (and even eerily) similar loss, please know that I am thinking of all of you and am here if anyone would care to communicate.