[visionlist] [cvnet] AB Bonds

[Jason Samonds]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/279958164338448/?ref=share

On Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 8:18 PM Maureen Powers <mopowers at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dear cvnet community--
>
> I am profoundly saddened by this news.
>
> AB was a fundamental part of the original Vanderbilt Vision Research
> Center, founded in 1990 when we had only the minimum number of
> investigators (AB, Randolph Blake, Bob Fox, Joe Lappin, Vivien Casagrande,
> Jon Kaas, myself, and John Reiser) to qualify for a P30 grant from NEI.
> VVRC has grown tremendously since then, thanks to the active involvement
> and leadership of "new" investigators like Jeff Schall, Frank Tong, and the
> Medical School -In addition to Medicine, the schools of Education,
> Engineering, and Liberal Arts (Graduate School) were involved in the
> initial Core grant.
>
> AB was a great friend and colleague. Yes, he could be a curmudgeon- but
> his curmudgeon-ness was founded in humor, and he could be very sweet (don't
> tell him that!). He berated me (as a professor and a mother) for "allowing"
> my child, then a Vanderbilt Engineering undergraduate, to enter his class
> in his black raincoat and sit in the last row, taking absolutely no notes.
> Yet Dana (my son) aced the homework, exams, and the course. Little did
> either of us know that he studied multiple hours every night to get the
> homework done - He simply memorized things during class and then applied
> that knowledge later - but AB was truly upset. "No one aces my courses
> without working!" he said to me. That student is now a super-competent
> computer engineer, thanks to AB's begrudging tutelage.
>
> AB garnered respect throughout the Vanderbilt community; he was a fabulous
> teacher. I am certain there are many more stories about AB's love of
> teaching - including more of AB's vocal resentment of students who appeared
> not to study.
>
> On a personal note: AB and I started our professorial careers at
> Vanderbilt at the same time, in 1979/80. He encouraged me to take the job,
> and I did. It was a wonderful community to work in during those years- my
> colleagues and the projects we worked on were exciting. But perhaps most
> importantly, AB convinced me to buy an MGA. It had to be red, he said,
> because a red car brings serenity. He was correct- I still have that red
> MGA  (1958) and I think of AB every time I drive it.
>
> AB's contribution to vision science was quantitative and important, in the
> era when we were trying to understand basic cellular organization and
> interactions in the retina and how they convey information to the brain. He
> worked with cats, then monkeys, collaborating with some of the greatest
> female vision scientists - Christina Enroth-Cugell and Vivien Casagrande. I
> never had the pleasure of working with AB - he disdained fish - but I will
> forever be grateful for his contributions to visual neuroscience and to my
> life.
>
> Maureen Powers
>
>
> Maureen Kennedy Powers PhD FCOVD FAAO FARVO
> Senior Scientist & Director of Research, Gemstone Foundation
> President, Eyes in Sync LLC
> President, Lions Vision Resource Network
> Global Leadership Team Coordinator, Lions Clubs International District 4-C3
> Phone (510) 772-4911
>
>
>
>
> On Tuesday, April 19, 2022, 04:28:42 PM PDT, Jason Samonds via cvnet <
> cvnet at lawton.ewind.com> wrote:
>
>
> I just wanted to let members of the vision research community know that AB
> Bonds, Professor of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering at
> Vanderbilt University passed away on April 10th. AB was trained by
> Christina Enroth-Cugell at Northwestern and Ralph Freeman at Berkeley and
> studied everything from optics to retina to the visual cortex. Attendees of
> ARVO and the early days of VSS probably know him best for his eccentric
> personality.  As a retiree, he continued to be an adventurous world
> traveler and a vibrant member of the Nashville community with his interests
> in music and classical European cars.
>
> ----------------------------------------
> Jason Samonds, PhD
> Center for Learning & Memory
> University of Texas at Austin
>
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