In Memoriam: Elizabeth Samantha Meckes, 1980-2020

Elizabeth Meckes, a professor of mathematics at Case Western Reserve Univerity in Cleveland, Ohio, died on December 16. She was 40 years old and had recently been diagnosed with cancer and had just started chemotherapy.

Eileen Anderson-Fye, an associate professor and director of education in the department of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University, stated that “as a colleague she was brilliant, good, courageous, strong, dynamic, open, collaborative, and humane. As a friend, she was compassionate, thoughtful, hilarious, dedicated to her children and her husband, and shared a smile that lit up the room.”

Dr. Meckles joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University in 2007. She was promoted to associate professor in 2013 and to full professor in 2018. Professor Meckes was spending this academic year with the random matrix theory group at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford in England, supported by a Simons Fellowship. Her research was focused on probability and analysis.

Professor Meckes held bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Case Western Reserve University. She earned a Ph.D. in mathematics at Stanford University.