All of Caltech, and the cosmology community worldwide, is mourning the death of Andrew Lange. He was one of the world’s leading scientists, co-leader of the Boomerang experiment that provided the first precise measurement of the first acoustic peak in the cosmic microwave background. He took his own life Thursday night.
It’s hard to convey how unexpected and tragic this news is. Very few people combined Andrew’s brilliance as a scientist with his warmth as a person. He always had a sparkle in his eye, was enthusiastically in love with science and ideas, and was constantly doing his best to make Caltech the best possible place, not just for himself but for everyone else around him. He was one of the good guys. The last I spoke with him, Andrew was energetically raising funds for a new submillimeter telescope, organizing conferences, and helping plan for a new theoretical physics center. We are all walking around in shock, wondering how this could happen and whether we could have done anything to prevent it. Caltech has had several suicides this year — hard to make sense of any of them.
The message from Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau is below the fold. For any local readers, there’s contact info if you would like to talk to counselors for any reason.
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January 22, 2010
TO: The Caltech Community
FROM: Jean-Lou Chameau
It is with great sadness and regret that I must report to you the death of Professor Andrew Lange, a valued member of the Caltech faculty. Andrew was found this morning off campus, and it appears that he took his own life. Among the most difficult things that people have to deal with in life are tragedies of this sort, especially when they affect people that we know and care for; and Andrew was such a well-known, well-respected, and well-liked member of our community that many of us will be deeply affected.
Andrew came to Caltech in 1993 and was most recently the chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy. He was a truly great physicist and astronomer who had made seminal discoveries in observational cosmology.
Andrew was a valued colleague and a close friend to many of us. His death is a source of great sadness to us all and our deepest sympathy goes out to his family, friends, and colleagues, all of whom mourn his loss.
We know this tragic news will come as a shock to everyone — faculty, staff, and students alike, even those of you who knew that Andrew had been struggling with personal issues. Many of us feel the need in times like these to reach out and seek help in dealing with the shock, and I urge anyone who wants help to seek it from family members, friends, faculty, and/or professional counselors. This is not only a reasonable thing to do, it is an important thing to do. I want to emphasize in particular that counselors are always available, 24-hours a day. Students should call the Counseling Center at 626-395-8331, while faculty, staff, and postdocs, should call the Staff and Faculty Consultation Center at 626-395-8360. In addition, the Counseling Center will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 10-3pm.
Heartbreaking, Sean. My condolences to you, Andrew’s family, and the Caltech community.
Wow. This is a shock. May he rest in peace.
I’m beyond horrified, shocked and saddened by this news. He was a terrific guy. I had lunch with Andrew at the Huntington Library in mid-October, at a small luncheon we put on for some CalTech scientists, and found him incredibly personable, warm, and higly capable of demystifying science for humanists. We agreed he’d visit soon for a tour of the history of astronomy collections here. The world has lost a bright light indeed. -Daniel Lewis, Ph.D. / Dibner Senior Curator for the History of Science & Technology / The Huntington
Stunned and saddened. Andrew stood up for me when I was his grad student; when I needed a champion he was there. Whenever any of us were having tough times, he always convinced us to take time to ourselves. This is such a great loss.
WTF. This is so senseless. Stunning. He was amazing, and seemed to have it all together. And his family, my God. Feel so bad for them. What a loss for them, the Caltech community, and hell, for science in general.
Just terrible.
I noted Sean’s previous comments on suicide and have worked myself on community suicide prevention programs in the Pacific islands, which have one of the highest suicide rates (of young men) in the world.
Although suicide there seemed to occur because of some “incident”, most of the guys who had a predisposition to this kind of behavior felt rejected by, if not their society, some person who meant a great deal to them. Very early in life, starting at the breast- and continuously thereafter- every child needs to feel important and accepted.
In Micronesia, the fellows liked to lean on the rope, or would use the family 22 rifle. Our programs were community based and very activist. We organized the young people into groups with mutual interests and needs. When somebody ran off into the woods with a rope, they were chased and prevented by being reassured they were important and would be terribly missed.
Any incident would be reported to a caring adult. First we would take action and send the young person to visit friends and/ or relatives say in Guam or Hawaii…make them feel important by investing in them.
When they returned they would be followed closely by companions and given counseling. I worked with local guys on the procedures and after I went my way, they continued the program. I was told later that suicide on that island stopped abruptly for more than 20 years…in spite of the poverty, lack of education and family stresses in the island environment.
The note sent to your faculty and students noted that Andrew had been struggling with personal issues. Suicide is a personal matter…it has its roots deep in psyco-sexual dynamics. One young man on the island where I worked had a funny name: “Useless”. I asked his father why he named his youngster “Useless” and he told me he had 14 children already- and this one was useless. Today, Useless is an important leader, helping
others on his island find the peace and security he knows.
Suicide-prone people need to KNOW somebody cares- REALLY cares in a meaningful way. That means they need to experience- and be comfortable- in intimate relationships. It also means they need to learn that there are non-manipulative, caring people in the world!
I asked one guy who had been “ditched” by his girl how many females there were in the world…and suggested that there was probably, among those 3 billion souls, one just for him, who would not heartlessly drop him. Girls need to have the same understanding. Problems with identity need to be dealt with with understanding and acceptance.
Every kid thinks they are the first person on Earth to “grow up”. We all need to be reminded what happens to us…the feelings we experience, are common to everyone and that others (not necessarily everyone) cares, really cares.
I remember once being approached by a young person. He suddenly blurted out that there was something “wrong” with him. I asked “what” and soon realized he was much more normal than he realized. I told him so. Just that much encouragment, given at a critical time of his life transformed him. Hw went on to have a large family and successful life.
I believe we all, in this human family have a responsibility to care for each other, to support each other and to be ready to reach out as opportunities present themselves….
So it goes.
If this is due to the financial crisis, his blood is obviously on the administration’s hands. Presumably he was in good health? I’d kill myself if my mind was deteriorating, but I’d certainly try to make the most of the remaining time.
Still a sad loss.
I was a graduate student of Andrew’s from 1995 to 2002. He provided me with countless unbelievable opportunities. At several crucial times in my career, he came through with exceptional support, understanding, and kindness. I pass on so many lessons learned from him on a daily basis to my own students. Like so many of his colleagues, students, and friends, I owe him enormously, and am just shocked and deeply saddened by this. My love to all of you who are struggling with this loss, particularly those in his family.
I once was Andrew’s TA for Physics 1, probably in ’96 or ’97. I’ll never forget the course evaluation that read “This class was awesome; whatever Professor Lange was smoking before lecture, I want some.”
I’ve been in shock since I got the news. Best wishes to all my friends at Caltech, and to Andrew’s family.
This is such an extraordinary loss, especially for the people closest to Andrew, but also clearly for the rest of us too. I’ve been really moved by what his former students/TAs have posted here, so I want to thank them for sharing. Andrew obviously inspired the best kind of relationships in physics, and I hope that he will live on as he continues to inspire us all to remember to believe in each other and love what we are doing.
I’ve lost friends to suicide, and there are really no words for the infinite sense of “why?” that stays forever. Whatever he was suffering must have been terrible, and I’m sorry that he couldn’t find another way out.
This is particularly horrible as we consider that this is the second loss to the astronomy community in two weeks. Sam Roweis at NYU killed himself on January 13. I hope we will take from this the importance of letting each other know that it’s okay to not be okay, and it’s okay to ask for help. That depression and other mental challenges are human experiences. We as a community need to cultivate a caring environment so that when people are troubled, they can reach out. It sounds like Andrew tried to do that, so let’s follow his lead.
I want to echo what has been said about Andrew being one of the good guys, his love of science, his warmth towards students as well as his own children, and his relentless efforts to make amazing things happen at Caltech. I don’t suspect Andrew was having financial problems. Tenured Caltech faculty are a pretty stable bunch in that sense. I also want to say that Andrew was an optimist, and maybe even a bit of a narcissist (in the way that so many promising academics are, and almost need to be in order to be competitive in their field). I don’t believe for one minute that he was suicidal in the sense that Sam Cox described above. Andrew recently resigned from being chair of the division, because he felt it was interfering with his family life… he was in the process of putting his personal life back together. People who sat across from him at meeting tables the day before his death saw someone who was exhausted and distressed, but not hopeless.
Speaking as someone who has training in Psychology and has taken anti-depressants for many years, I believe that something beyond Andrew’s control – perhaps something chemical – must have washed over him. It wouldn’t be the first time that an antidepressant has caused sudden suicidal thoughts.
I had Professor Lange as a lecturer and section leader in Physics 2b a few years ago. He was academically inspired and inspiring; he cared about his students learning and understanding. We appreciated that and took him out to lunch at the end of the term. Caltech and the world has lost a wonderful person.
Very sad.
The main article on wikipedia today is also about a man who took his own life, though he was bipolar. I suspect the the faculty and students interacting with Prof Lange would have brought any strange behavior up with the administration.
Is there any information about his recent behavior? Depression and suicide can be entirely irrational things, not related to understandable or reasonable difficulties.
Andrew was a stellar human being and a great scientist. He suffered for many years from depression. I think that he would’ve OK’d my saying this: if someone is talking about killing themselves, TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. Call 911. Get them into a hospital. Better to hospitalize someone who’s *not* really on the verge of doing it than to fail to hospitalize someone who *is*. Depression is a killer disease, just like cancer or pneumonia. Whether it’s you or someone else: get help.
Thank you for this, Sean. Andy was one of the most likable and admirable people I’ve ever known, at Caltech or anywhere. This is a miserable blow. My wife has been suffering from severe anxiety and depression for the last 12 months. It’s all brain chemistry gone awry. In a severe exacerbation, it’s easy to see how death would be preferable; at those times, I stay home with her. I’ve had to discuss this with Andy on several occasions, and I found him to be exceptionally sympathetic and supportive. At the time, I attributed it to his exceedingly good nature. Aieee…
I’m shocked and saddened by such a tragic loss, to humanity and to science. I first worked with Andrew in 1989, and occasionally through his early Caltech years (as did BJP). I remember him asking to see some of my work when I was a grad student, telling others that I was a clever guy and that he’d be interested to see what I’d done. That moment has stayed with me ever since. Andrew was the clever one, and what I was doing was directly inspired by what he had done in his early career. What must surely have been a throwaway comment from him was an awesome event for me. My respect for him has remained undimmed for twenty years, and I shall miss him and his presence in the field.
#15 I went through something similar a while back and slowly ended up periodically suicidal. After 18 months of systematically eliminating everything, it turned out to be some kind of freaky reaction to a generic medication I was switched to from a name brand. I hope you will consider the non-obvious if you’ve tried everything else, including diet, medication changes of any kind, and a full physical for undiagnosed illness. I found out the hard way that there are a range of technically non-mentally illness things that can end up with you dead.
That’s very sad news. May he rest in peace.
I’ve been in shock all day since hearing this last night. It is tragic in every way. My condolences to everyone who knew Andrew.
I just want to say reading this thread helps so much. I heard the news on travel and wasn’t around people who could share my shock and grief. As with many people who have posted, Andrew went far out of his way to show kindness, generosity and understanding during a recent very trying period
for my family. I feel lucky that last week, I was able to share with him my appreciation for his support. I feel horrible that he was so good at helping others when we could have helped him more. Post #10
says it right. Let’s honor Andrew by remembering to take care of each other.
I’m shocked, yet this communication begins the healing. I’ve had friends take their own lives, and we could all see it coming, as combination of depression and impulsiveness. But in other cases (I didn’t know Andrew Lange well enough, just a few conversations at Caltech) I never saw it coming. My sympathy and condolence to all who are hurt by this. Please do not torture yourself with feelings that you might have said or done something different, and prevented that. Such hypothetical events are not in the light cone.
Just askin (from Germany) : is (attempted) suicide illegal in your country?
Andrew was one of the few scientists who really ‘got it;’ that science is about hard work, perseverence, and community rather than an IQ test or a pedigree. Andrew gave me a second chance at science, and on his team I felt as though I fit in and could thrive. That is a rare attribute among research teams, and that legacy lives on in his former students. Andrew’s passing is a terrible loss to the cosmology community, to the Caltech campus, and to the world in general. Please keep his family and research collaborators in your thoughts.
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To Eunoia #22,
Attempted suicide is illegal in most places in the US.