Professor Emeritus Tom Herbert, who passed away last November, loved the outdoors and had a passion for science.

The Department of Biology will host an informal gathering in memory of professor emeritus Tom Herbert on Saturday, January 25, at 2 p.m. in the Cox Science Center, room 166. Professor Herbert passed away on November 21, 2013, in an automobile accident near Irkutsk, Siberia. Those who have been touched by Professor Herbert are welcome to attend, or may email comments and/or images to [email protected] to be read or shown during the ceremony.

Professor Herbert loved the outdoors and had a passion for science and all things technical. He received a bachelor of science degree in biophysics from MIT as well as a Ph.D. in the same field from The Johns Hopkins University. He completed his postdoctoral work at Brown and Cornell and was a faculty member in UM’s Department of Biology from 1974 to 2012, creating mathematical models of light interception and photosynthesis by plant canopies. He was a visiting scientist at Osaka University in 1983 and at the Estonian Academy of Sciences in the former Soviet Union from 1987 to 1988. While his scientific interests included plants, lasers, and computers, Professor Herbert always felt that as a university professor one of his most important responsibilities was to the students he instructed. Fittingly, the January 25 ceremony will be held in the Cox Science classroom where he often lectured.

An insatiable curiosity about the natural world and other cultures led him to twice circumnavigate the globe by air and land and to travel throughout six continents. Professor Herbert was an artful photographer of the different places and people he encountered on his journeys. He often traveled independently, using itineraries devised of his own energetic planning to fully immerse himself in his adventures. He sought rare paths through the most unique landscapes and cultures. At times, his family joined his adventures through Europe, Africa, and Asia to reach destinations as diverse as the rivers of France, the plains of Zambia, and the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan.

Professor Herbert spent his last days doing what he loved: adventuring out in the world where he was at peace, happy, and full of wonder. He is survived by his beloved wife, Lynn; daughter, Janet; son, Peter; grandchildren, Bet, Kenan, Justin, and William; and brother, Captain William “Bill” Herbert of Ventura, California.