Murray Lefkowitz (from left), Jelle Atema, and John Snyder. Photos by BU Photography (Lefkowitz), Kalman Zabarsky (Atema), Julie Chen (Snyder)

Faculty

Remembering CFA’s Murray Lefkowitz, CAS’ Jelle Atema and John Snyder

Jelle Atema
College of Arts & Sciences

Jelle Atema, a College of Arts & Sciences professor emeritus of biology and of marine science, died July 19, 2024. He was 84.

Atema was director of the Boston University Marine Program from 1990 to 2004 and an adjunct scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His research focused on understanding how marine animals, such as sharks and lobsters, sense their environment and how they use that information to make decisions leading to food and mates.

At his Woods Hole lab in 2013, he explained his research on sharks’ sense of smell to a BU Today writer. “All animals, dead or alive, give off some kind of odor,” Atema said. “The science here is to understand how odor is dispersed into the water, and how many molecules does a shark need in his nose to start tracking that odor.” His research on shark behavior “made him a frequent guest commentator on the Discovery Channel’s ‘Shark Week’ specials,” according to a published obituary.

Atema, who was born December 9, 1940, in Deventer, Netherlands, also was an accomplished flutist who studied under world-renowned flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, according to his obituary, and played concerts and taught and lectured about the flute.

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Murray Lefkowitz
College of Fine Arts

Murray Lefkowitz, a College of Fine Arts professor emeritus in the School of Music, a musician, mentor, and musicologist, died September 29, 2022. He was 98.

Lefkowitz was born in Mineola, N.Y., and studied the violin at an early age. He served in the US Army during World War II, touring the major concert halls of Europe as part of the GI Symphony. He earned a PhD from the University of Southern California, specializing in 17th-century English music, and wrote books and encyclopedia articles on the subject. At the time of his retirement from BU, he was head of CFA’s musicology department.

According to his obituary, he also took pride in his collection of viola da gamba and in the harpsichord that he’d built by hand.

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John Snyder
College of Arts & Sciences

When Lawrence Ziegler, former chair and professor of chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences, would ask graduating seniors about their favorite teacher, their responses were always the same: Professor John Snyder.

“Sometime in my second year as chair, I changed the question to ‘Who, aside from John Snyder, was your favorite teacher?’” says Ziegler, who retired from BU in 2023. “John was genuinely beloved by the undergraduates. I don’t think his level of passion and devotion to the students was matched by any other faculty member that I saw in my years as chair.”

Snyder, a CAS professor emeritus of chemistry, died November 13, 2023. He was 72.

Snyder earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry at Denison University and a PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Chicago. In 1983, he became a CAS assistant professor of chemistry and was on the faculty for 39 years.

He was a devoted teacher and mentor, receiving BU’s highest teaching honor—a Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching—in 1989 and the student-nominated Templeton Prize for Excellence in Student Advising in the College of Arts & Sciences in 2009.

Snyder was also the founder and codirector of the chemistry Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, which recruits students from underrepresented populations to conduct research in STEM labs over the summer and includes a stipend for travel and housing. To support the program, he established the Phyllis D. Snyder BU IMPACTS Fund, in memory of his mother, a third grade teacher. His family has renamed the fund the John Snyder and Phyllis Snyder BU IMPACTS Fund, which provides access to the sciences to underserved students of all ages and promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion through participation in summer STEM immersion programs.

“From the beginning, the value of education was instilled in him from his mom,” says his daughter, Tracy Snyder (CAS’12, Questrom’17). “Over the years, he was able to see a lot of inequities in the systems and a lot of students who were left behind or were severely disadvantaged. He wanted to make a difference.” —Sydney Gross