Alan Stuart Waggoner

Alan’s sense of curiosity, adventure and fun were just as outsized as his talents as a molecule whisperer and inventor of new probes. As an instructor at the Annual Courses in Cytometry from 1982 - 2018, Alan taught me and at least 3 more generations of cytometrists about the art and science of fluorescence even as his molecular creations radically extended the reach of biological questions it could help to answer. Whether it was in the lab, on the deer trail at Bandelier, or hiking up the mountain at Schloss Elmau, Alan's "look what I found, come on, let's explore" glee was infectious. He was a rare and wonderful human being and very special friend. I will miss him very much.

Alan's outlook and academic journey was always an inspiration to me. It was truly a pleasure to learn from Alan about photochemistry or life. His stories about switching fields as a young scientist helped me realize that ones' path in learning/life is not always linear and that everyone feels 'in over their head' sometimes (but that it shouldn't stop you!). He was always kind, positive, and extremely passionate about science. The more I work in the field, the more I realize that this kindness, humility, and interest is really what makes a great scientist. He will be missed.

Some photos from past Cytometry meetings

I met Alan through the Cytometry courses. His lectures and humor were whip sharp and he was warm and kind. It was an honor to know him. He'll be greatly missed. My condolences to his family.

Alan was an absolutely amazing scientist and a fantastic person (the latter is more important to me). I actually used to tell people if you met Alan at the grocery store and introduced him to your family, they would never know that he was a world class scientist as he was so super kind. My prayers are there for him and his family. He will be tremendously missed by me and so many other people. Blessings, Phil.

Alan ala "Waggs" was the brother I never had. We met in the early 80´s at one of Paul Horan´s and Kathy Muirhead´s cytometry courses. He was hands down the best speaker I´ve ever heard. His explanations on how light interacts with molecules were so clear that afterwards you felt like you could predict what any chemical compound would do in the presence of light. His wit and humor would quickly engage the audience no matter how tired they were.

We quickly became friends over the years while teaching these courses. We both love the game of golf and would try to sneak out and play as much as we could. We would always get deep into a conversation while playing. I remember one time while playing a course near Sante Fe, we encountered a sandstorm in the middle of our round. We never even acknowledged that the whipping sand was making it difficult to see or breathe, let alone hit a golf ball. After the round was over, the head pro came running up to our sand-caked cart asking if we were OK given the intensity of the sandstorm. We both just smiled and said, "what sandstorm". Afterwards, over a few marguerites at El Paraguay, we would laugh at ourselves and the head pro´s incredulous expression.

Waggs loved the desert. On our day off when teaching at Albuquerque and/or Los Alamos, we would meet up with some of our friends and take long hikes in Bandelier Park. On one occasion, we were walking the trail with Kathy Muirhead and Waggs looks over a cliff of boulders and indicates that he thinks he sees a deer trail along the rocks. He scales down the rocks and sure enough there was indeed a hard-to-see trail there. After much encouragement, Kathy and I joined him on the side of the cliff, and we started to make our way back along the trail. That had to be the coolest hike I´ve ever had.

I don´t have many friends, but Waggs was one. I hate this aspect of life. As you get older you have to deal with the finiteness of life. My heart goes out to Karen, the kids, and the grandkids. We lost one of the good ones. I'll miss you buddy...

C. Bruce Bagwell (ala "Bags")

Alan showed me that no matter how smart you are, kindness and communication with other people are the most important things in science. I will never forget how much Alan cared and how invested he was in short meetings that we had as a part of my PhD journey.

Condolences to Karen and family. I met Alan through the phone when I was a graduate student at the University of Rochester. He had sent a dye (DiOC1[3]) to Paul Horan who gave it to me to work with. I measured the extinction coefficient to measure concentrations, and that was what we discussed. I think when I met him in person, it was at Schloss Elmau, and he, Paul, Kathy Muirhead, and others hiked up a mountain on an afternoon off. Through the years I had many conversations with Alan at many meetings. The obit characterizes him perfectly - always interested in so many things, persistently curious in a childlike, easygoing way, always kind and gentle. I particularly remember a dinner conversation when the two of us were visiting Bruce Bagwell at the same time. The topics ranged from science, politics, life and death. This will be a sad day for so many.

I met Alan and chose him as my graduate research advisor in my second year as a graduate student in Chemistry Department at CMU. This was one of the best critical choices I made in my life that paved my career. In the next 4 years, I learned a great deal from Alan, not only his deep knowledge in fluorescent dye chemistry, cell biology...but also ways of learning and exploring science. He was so kind and had a great sense of humor. Timid me never felt nervous in front of him. I remember a time when I was doing in situ hybridization to fixed cells using cyanine dye-labeled oligonucleotide, the background staining of the cells was very high. I knew I probably did something wrong but couldn´t figure things out. He lightly joked, saying "my lab must be filled with cyanine dye dust that messed up your experiment". I laughed and relaxed....His famous cyanine dyes that span a full spectrum were used by scholars around the world, helped a great deal in our understanding of cellular biology, advancing DNA sequencing technology, and so much more. Alan will always be remembered as a great scientist, an entrepreneur, a kind and a witty man. May you rest in peace.

My deepest condolences to Karen. Alan and I became friends in 1971 when I came to Yale as a postdoc with Larry Cohen. We published seminal papers together more than fifty years ago; I will miss him very much. All my love, Brian