[AGORA-mailing-list] Memorial Service for Joel

[Ji-hoon Kim]

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

Happy new year 2026 to everyone.  Please find the attached information regarding the memorial service for Joel Primack next month, kindly shared by Nancy and Samara.

Thank you very much for your attention in this matter, and may Joel rest in peace.

Sincerely,
Santi and Ji-hoon





> Begin forwarded message:
> 
>> Hello and happy new year!
>> 
>> Please join us for a communal celebration of Joel's life at the Santa Cruz Peace Church, 10am on Saturday February 14th, with a reception afterwards at the venue. If you can't attend in person, we'll be livestreaming the event and would love you to join remotely from anywhere in the world. 
>> 
>> 3 requests:
>> 
>> 1. If you have a funny memory to share, or a story to tell of Joel’s impact on you, please do! We’ll have a chance for those during the event. If you’ll be livestreaming, please send us what you’d like to share in the form of a short video (1-minute, iPhone is fine, horizontal is best) by January 31st. We'd absolutely love to have them.
>> 
>> 2. Please RSVP by January 15th to PRIMACKMEMORIAL at GMAIL.COM -- either to attend in person or if you’d like the livestream link (tell us which option). We're sending this from my personal email so it doesn't get flagged as spam, but please reply to Primackmemorial at gmail.com.
>> 
>> 3. Please share this email or the attached image with anyone you know who worked with Joel or cared about him. Colleagues and loved ones near and far are all invited.
>> 
>> Much love,
>> Nancy and Samara
>> 

>> 
>> --
>> Nancy Ellen Abrams
>> Santa Cruz, CA 
>> 831-234-3958 (c)
>> Join my musical Substack at
>> nancyellenabrams.substack.com
>> http://agodthatcouldbereal.com
>> http://nancyellenabrams.com
>> 
>> Bring me into the company of those who seek the truth, and deliver me from those who have found it.








> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Ji-hoon Kim <mornkr at snu.ac.kr>
> Subject: [AGORA-mailing-list] Very sad news
> Date: November 14, 2025 at 12:08:34 PM GMT+9
> To: santacruzgalaxy-list at lists.ucsc.edu
> Reply-To: Ji-hoon Kim <mornkr at snu.ac.kr>, Ji-hoon Kim <santacruzgalaxy at gmail.com>
> 
> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> It is with my deepest regret that I inform you of the passing of our beloved colleague, Joel Primack.  Please see the message from UC Santa Cruz below.
> 
> We are all profoundly saddened by this news, especially because many of us vividly remember him so kindly hosting another Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop and AGORA Workshop just this past August, together with Nancy.  In addition to his many great achievements as a cosmologist, physicist, and astrophysicist, he was one of the principal architects of the AGORA Project in 2012 and helped rallied the computational galaxy formation community behind it for all these years.  He was a wonderful mentor to the entire AGORA Collaboration, and to me personally as well.  The news feels especially heartbreaking and shocking to me, as my student Hyeonyong and I were in communication with him about our Paper X as recently as just ten days ago.  He had been offering generous guidance on the SKIRT images in the paper and was very happy with the improvements.  I am truly heartbroken and at a loss for proper words.
> 
> As we receive any further updates (e.g., information about a memorial service), we will make sure to share them with the Collaboration.  While we ask for your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time, please also feel free to share your own anecdotes and memories of Joel in this thread.  Thank you very much for your attention.  
> 
> Sincerely,
> Ji-hoon and Santi
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ===============================================================
> Passed on from colleagues at UCSC.
> 
> Dear colleagues:
> 
> It is with deep regret that we send news of the passing of renowned UCSC
> cosmologist and astrophysicist Joel Primack.  Joel battled courageously
> for many years with pancreatic cancer and was actively participating in
> his many collaborations until just a few days ago.
> 
> Joel was a giant in the field of cosmology and galaxy formation.  Best known
> as a co-author of the theory of cold dark matter (CDM) and galaxy formation,
> his contributions shaped the foundations of the subject, and his passing leaves
> a gap that cannot be filled.
> 
> Joel's impact extended well beyond cosmology.  He played main roles
> in founding the Congressional Science and Technology Fellowship program
> and ending the use of nuclear reactors in space.  With his wife
> Nancy Abrams he authored two books that argued for the importance
> of modern cosmic knowledge in shaping human values.
> 
> Joel received  a great many honors and awards, including the Leo Szilard
> Lectureship  Award of the American Physical Society for promoting the use of
> physics for the benefit of society, the American Physical Society Julius Edgar
> Lilienfeld Prize for outstanding contributions to physics and exceptional skills in
> lecturing to diverse audiences, and the Philip Hauge Abelson Prize, awarded
> by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for distinguished
> scientific achievement and notable services to the scientific community.
> 
> More information concerning remembrances and a memorial will follow.
> 
> We would be grateful if you could share this news with colleagues in your
> organization and with any others in the field who would be interested.
> 
> 
> From Joel's colleagues in the UC Santa Cruz
> Departments of Physics and Astronomy & Astrophysics
> ===============================================================



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ji-hoon Kim
Associate Professor
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University
www.jihoonkim.org / mornkr at snu.ac.kr
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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