Boris Avdeev, 1980-2012

One of our recent graduates, Boris Avdeev (PhD ’11), has passed away at the age of 31. He was caught in an avalanche while backcountry skiing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
 
Boris was a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, where he received a bachelor and a master’s degree in geology from St. Petersburg State University. He moved to the United States in 2003 to pursue a master’s degree in geostatistics from the University of Texas at Arlington.
 
In 2006, Boris joined our department, where he completed a Ph.D. dissertation on the tectonic evolution of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. Boris had spent the time since graduation refining some new numerical techniques he developed at Michigan for the interpretation of low-temperature thermochronologic data, and had accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, to start later this year.
 
For those of you who had the opportunity to meet Boris, I’m sure that you have a memory of him. He was quick with a joke (good or bad), tireless in the field, whether working or playing, and wonderfully intellectually creative. He tackled life with energy and enthusiasm; nothing Boris did was ever done halfway. He will be missed greatly by his colleagues, mentors, and friends.

In memory of Boris, The Boris Avdeev Memorial Endowment Fund* has been established in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences to support fellowships for graduate student research. For questions regarding this memorial please contact Professor Kacey Lohmann (kacey@umich.edu) or Professor Nathan Niemi (naniemi@umich.edu). To contribute to the fund you may send a check made payable to the University of Michigan to the following address. Please indicate “Boris Avdeev” on the memo line of your check.

 
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
2534 C.C. Little Building
1100 N. University Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1005
 
Thank you for your support of this memorial to Boris.
 
The Fund constitutes gifts for endowment, and distributions will be made in accordance with the University’s then existing endowment distribution policy.  Any surplus distributions from the Fund during any period may be accumulated for later use for the above purpose or may be added to the principal of the Fund at the University’s discretion. If, however, we are unable to reach the university’s endowment minimum, your generous contributions will be transferred to an expendable fund for immediate use in support of graduate student research.