In Memoriam: Susi

[amy]

We have sad news to share. Susi, legendary Eyewirer and keystone in the community, has passed away. She spent 8 years playing and over this time became a friend and mentor to so many. She built deep friendships and was always willing to help fellow Eyewirers while welcoming new players to the community. Her generous multi-year sponsorship of swag supported special events and allowed many people around the world to sport Eyewire gear. Her collages to congratulate fellow players will forever have a spot in our hearts. She even generously hosted a homecooked Eyewire EU meetup at her house in Switzerland, where she demonstrated that she is as kind and caring in real life as she is online. Susi was a wonderful, warm part of the community and will be dearly missed.

To honor her, please share Susi stories. Share anecdotes and general sentiments. Share collages she made for you. Share kind words. We at HQ will compile these into a printed form to send en memorial to her husband as a way to forever remember the impact she had on the community behind the citizen science.

As suggested by annkri, we will likely launch a Susi’s Memorial neuron in the near future.

[amy]

Here are a few memories with susi over the years

A congratulations card HQ made in susi style when she reached 40M points

susi, amy, r3, and kfay at susi’s house in Switzerland

Nurro’s BFF

susi’s annual Eyewire calendar

Susi, you will be so missed!! <3

[celiad]

susi was an awesome person and a staple of the Eyewire community. She was always dedicated to Eyewire and made fantastic art from the neurons for both fun and to celebrate other accomplishments by other Eyewirers.

She was always a very friendly and compassionate player and always made others both new and old feel welcome. We loved having her calendars hanging up in HQ. She was also a great Eyewire player and made a large impact on the number of cells completed in Eyewire.

She was also one of our earliest players and so her Eyewire legacy is certainly felt by the whole community.

For susi! For science! Her legacy lives on.

[annkri]

Susi was one of the best Eyewire players i have had the honor to meet, she was always willing to help if anyone was in need of it, both to solve the puzzle and too listen if anyone needed it. In the game she was known as the authority on missalignments and i have learned a lot about how to trace past them from her. The great pictures she made both to individual players and the community was heartwarming and showed how well she knew us all. The first time she made a picture to me i did think nobody had seen me getting a new milestone in chat and was a bit disappointed, but next time i logged on she had used time to give me a personalized picture that made my day. I think one of the pictures she made that i like best is this.
Nik 200000 reaps.jpg3893×3953 3.21 MB

since it shows much of what i think of as Eyewire.
Susi you will be greatly missed and eyewire will not be the same without you.

[twister2]

Susi is a true legend. She was one of the warmest, friendliest and most dedicated Eyewirers I have ever known. She was highly skilled at tracing, and her name consistently graced the upper echelons of the leaderboards for 8 years, yet she was always so humble, eager to teach newcomers, and always seeking to learn new skills. Whenever she made a mistake (like we all do), she was never afraid to admit it, and never felt sorry for herself. She always took it with a confident smile (you could “read” the smile in her words) and always believed in herself. She saw every mistake as an opportunity for growth.

Having come from a scientific background, Susi was a born citizen scientist. She had a good eye for detail, and was often guided in her decisions by an analytical approach with an eye to minimizing bias. Her dedication to Eyewire was reflective of a commitment to science, and to improving the lives of people. She has made a difference. She was an inspiration to many of us, and may her legacy carry on.

Susi was also a wonderful friend. I’ll never forget the pleasant conversations I had with her, and the German lessons she taught me. She will be missed greatly, and I will always remember her.

[Nseraf]

Sigh, I never know what to write in these things…I guess I’ll start with this; it was a shock when at the end of August you (susi) told me you were sick, pains that no pain killer could get rid of, and it was a shock when a week later you passed, all made more painful by the knowledge that I could have seen you one more time if covid hadn’t struck and instead of april in lockdown I had visited as we had planned, fricking covid…I miss you more than than words can attest, our convos in eyewire and mails and then in skype (after I left ew). your photo-collages of mine and other players’ milestones always made me smile, and grateful.

I can’t help but be reminded of an old poem,

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

There is one less star burning bright in the night sky, one less tigress, rest in peace my friend.

[Manni_Mammut]

When I was a novice in Eyewire Susi was the person who helped, gave advice (and often corrected my mistakes) and accompanied me all the years. She was a great player and made a large contribution to the overall progress in Eyewire. I loved her pictures she sent me when I reached another milestone, and her calendars are legendary pieces of Eyewire art.
Susi when I was in Switzerland this September I thought about visiting you, but now I had to learn that it would have been too late. Susi, rest in peace. I miss you.

[devonjones]

I almost feel like I can’t capitalize susi’s name, because in my head her name will always just be her all-lowercase username; and I think that makes so much sense with what an utterly humble, quietly diligent person she was.

susi, I will miss you so much. You were one of the first players I remember meeting or hearing about when I started working at HQ, and you’ve always stayed in the forefront of my mind when I think about the player community. It’s not just because you were so prolific on the leaderboard (becoming our second-highest-scoring player to date) and it’s not even just because of the gifts you had as a tracer (truly one of our most accurate players, ever, and I’ll echo those who named you the “misalignment master”). It’s not even just that you were an enthusiastic guide for newer players, comforting and encouraging as a cup of coffee on a winter’s day.

No: more than all of those things, it was the unique spark of interest and deep intuition that you brought to infuse the very spirit of Eyewire. From your DIY neuron art to your fully self-motivated volunteerism in competition events like the Hunt and Evil Cubes, you really embodied what a citizen science “lifestyle” could look like. Then, on top of that, you still always remembered you were doing this for fun and not for work. You were such an expert at standing up for what was fair, fun gameplay and suggesting realistic improvements to make sure the user experience was a player experience; and you were also so patient and understanding toward how when things weren’t going as well as they could, it was usually due to the fact that both AIs and humans make mistakes. Even more than fun, you cared about science and what was right.

I will be forever grateful for that incredible blend of helpfulness, resolve, and trust. In so many ways, you played an integral role in making Eyewire what it is today. Though the game will never be the same without you, it would also never have achieved its current form without you either. I am so glad you were with us for the time allowed by the hands of fate.

[celiad]

Just posting a link to susi’s “Featured Eyewirer” blog post from 2016 in case people want to read a little more about her and why she played Eyewire. https://blog.eyewire.org/featured-eyewirer-susi/

[AzureJay]

While I knew susi was around when I first played EW five years ago (and I’m sure we had lovely interactions), I can’t remember much about that time.

What I do remember is that when I returned to EW in July, susi was a key person in making me feel welcome and in keeping me interested and invested. While she wasn’t the only person to do so, I think if she hadn’t been there, I might not have stuck around. I adored her skill, her enthusiasm, and her friendliness - she really was a key part of the EW community.

[a5hm0r]

I balwling my eyes out reading this.
I don’t know what to say Eyewire was Susi and Susi was eyewire for me, I always played right along side her, see was a great person and corenstone of this community. µ

I’ll miss her as a player, friend, person.
Hope you are doing good susi, rest in peace.

EDIT: I logged in to see her name, but this is real she’s not online anymore :’(
In Memory for susi I changed my flag to Swiss <3

[a5hm0r]

I designed a memoriam plaque kinda thing. I hope I can print it soon, but my printer isn’t set up yet.
Once it’s printed I’ll show it here.

Design itself (the plaque will be gold, so will the words, the neuron will be her red from the chat.)

[Baraka]

I just found out and I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of susi being gone. I can’t add more than what other people have written already. She was always there is you had a question, if you were in doubt about something in EW or just being in the chat for a few laughs. I think she was one of the handful of people I always looked up to whenever I didn’t know how to solve a cube. I will always remembre her patience, her eagerness to teach, her sense of humor and humility, and her awesome powers at tracing even the most dificult cubes.

May we meet again.

[bl4ckscor3]

I didn’t know susi for long - I only joined EyeWire in April 2020 - however it became quickly apparent to me, that she was a very skilled, lovely, humble, and welcoming person. I like to think back at the times we talked together, and she telling me how confident she was in my abilities, making my day on multiple occasions by simply stating that she thought I am a good tracer. I was baffled - and a bit proud - that a member of her caliber would feel this way about a new player. She really was a key factor in my starting weeks of EyeWire, helping a lot when I struggled with something, always being positive about minor mishaps and overall just being a kind and awesome person to be around. Thank you for the great memories that I am able to have because of you. May you rest in peace.

This is only one message from her that I will always remember because it was a simple, humble comment that meant a lot to me because I wasn’t very confident back then.

[celiad]

Hi folks, thanks to everyone for your kind words. We’re putting a little project to celebrate susi’s life and importance to the EW community - details on the blog if you would like to participate - https://blog.eyewire.org/help-celebrate-legendary-eyewirer-susi/

[kinryuu]

I am so sad to hear of susi’s death. She was an amazing player and person. I think the idea of creating a susi cell would be a wonderful tribute to her. Wishing everyone well in these difficult time, kinryuu

[Noydor]

It was one chilly day in Lucerne, Switzerland in April 2019. The day I was very lucky to meet Susi offline. Actually, I was surprised when she offered to meet as she barely knew me.
It is rare that such people come across: open, intelligent, friendly, with a great sense of humor. And also very inspiring. It is unlikely that EW would be for me what it is, thanks to her.
When I logged in, I immediately looked for her short nickname with the Swiss flag, and this made me feel happy and somehow especially cozy.

Her first greeting card for me (with a phrase in Russian):

Just a fragment of the daily routine in Susie’s time:

[twotwos]

Susi was an incredibly kind player, and always willing to help out. I still remember how she helped me when I was first wrapping my head around Mystic, and at many other points in my Eyewire journey. Her contributions to the competition weeks made them much more exciting for all involved (and made me spend heaps of time on Eyewire even when I had work to do). She will always be missed.

[dereksims]

I am quiet in chat, but when stuck, Susi patiently and kindly always helped me out. I have no doubt that all the expressions of love and respect are entirely sincere. It’s a very sad day. Dereks

[a5hm0r]

I found this image susi made for me for my 15M.
It’s full of throwbacks to the early years of eyewire.

I miss her.
When I look up at the night sky, I will know another bright beautiful star has joined them.

For Science! For susi!!