INDIANA UNIVERSITYKathy Matthews, the long-time leader of both a widely popular Drosophila repository and a fruit fly genetics database, died Saturday (March 17). She was 64 years old.
Matthews directed the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center at Indiana University since 1986, and cofounded FlyBase, a catalog of Drosophila genetics, in 1992.
“After being central to two of the most important research resources to Drosophila genetics, it is fair to say that Kathy is as responsible for the success of the worldwide Drosophila research community as any other single person,” says Gregory Demas, professor and chair of the biology department at Indiana University Bloomington, in a statement emailed to The Scientist. “She was not one to claim credit quickly or boast about her accomplishments, but everyone who understands how fly research works knows this is a profound loss.”
Matthews was born in Japan in 1954 and spent the later part of her childhood in Texas. ...
