I just learned that a longtime supporter of the blog and a reader-turned-real-life-friend, Alex Small, passed away yesterday after a battle with brain cancer (diagnosed in April).

Alex was smart, funny, and passionate about his students and his work as a professor of physics at Cal Poly Pomona (edit on 12/23: in memoriam for Alex in CPP News). Here is a nice recent article about his life and career in honor of his lifetime achievement award from the OSSC.

Alex wrote eloquently and prolifically about problems in academia. Here are the links to some of his published essays.

CHE: https://www.chronicle.com/author/alex-small

IHE: https://www.insidehighered.com/node/5902

Heterodox Academy: https://heterodoxacademy.org/authors/alex-small/

More of his writing can be found on his blog Physicist at Large.

Alex also wrote science fiction, much of it under the pen name R. S. Alexander. Below are some of his short stories.

https://www.abyssapexzine.com/2019/03/a-missed-diversion/

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01835-y

https://365tomorrows.com/2016/09/24/revise-and-resubmit/

Goodbye, Alex. You will be missed.