The Biology Department remembers Dr. Karen Muskavitch with great fondness. Karen passed away on January 12, 2009, after a 3-year journey with brain cancer. BC students will remember Karen as a co-instructor for Introductory Biology from 2003-2006, together with her husband, Dr. Marc Muskavitch. During that time, the Drs. Muskavitch extended their caring professionalism to hundreds of students. On a more personal level, the Biology Department remembers Karen for her unfailing good humor, her intelligence and her community spirit.

Karen had a distinguished academic career. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1975 with honors in Chemistry and Biochemistry.  She obtained her doctorate in Biochemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied genetic recombination in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Linn.  As a postdoctoral fellow, Karen studied plant molecular biology in the laboratory of Dr. Lawrence Bogorad at Harvard University.  In 1984, the Drs. Muskavitch relocated to Indiana University, where Karen served as an assistant research scientist and an assistant professor part-time, and developed an academic interest in the ethics of scientific research.  Following their move to Boston College in 2000, Karen became an adjunct assistant professor of biology and the coordinator of Boston College’s Responsible Conduct of Research Program.

The Biology Department extends their sympathies to Karen’s husband, Marc, and to her two grown children, Laura and Erik.

 —The Biology Department, posted on March 13, 2009.—