A memorial bike ride is being planned for Stephen Chan, who served as the DOE Joint Genome Institute’s (JGI’s) Advanced Analytics Manager from 2021 until his death on January 11, 2024.
Chan “basically had a bike parts shop in his garage,” recalled colleague Shreyas Cholia, who worked with Steve during his time at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). “One time I had trouble with my bike and he told me to bring it over to his place. He was really an engineer at heart in all parts of his life.”
Chan previously held other positions within the Biosciences and Computing Sciences Areas at Berkeley Lab. He worked for the DOE Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase), first as a software developer and then as a release engineer between 2012–2021. Before that, he was a computer systems engineer at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) from 2001–2012.
“Steve really understood the Lab and its mission,” said Sarah Poon, a Berkeley Lab colleague who met Chan when they were classmates in the UC Berkeley Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS) program. Chan’s undergraduate degree was from Carnegie Mellon University. “He really cared about team science and creating an environment of inclusion way before that was a trend,” Poon continued. “He was always full of wisdom when you had a difficult situation to deal with at work or anything like that. He was the guy everyone consulted.”
Aside from being known for his technical acumen and cycling, “foodie” was one of the top five descriptors for Chan. “He was the one at NERSC who, when we moved from Oakland to the Berkeley campus, went out and discovered all the good restaurants in the area,” recalled Shane Canon, another NERSC colleague. “He always knew the new, trendy places. He maintained this list that everyone relied on. If you had to take someone to lunch, you talked to Steve first. He got a SPOT award for it!”
People gathered after work in the first few weeks after Chan’s death to share their memories. “Lunch every Monday was a ritual because Steve was picking restaurants,” agreed Dani Cassol, who has taken overJGI Analysis and Workflow Service (JAWS) product management with Chan’s passing. “Maybe we can bring that back.”
Cassol also spoke of Chan as a mentor. “He was a good manager, easy to talk to, easy to approach,” she said. “I went with him to the [Supercomputing] conference in Denver last year. It was my first big conference, and he took me around the exhibitors floor and introduced me to everyone he knew. He told me things that he was planning on like strategic things about JAWS, and the team. When I heard the news, I knew what he wanted for the project. It was like he was guiding us, so it was kind of easy to jump in and execute the plan.”
“I think he really had a need to get to know people and connect them to his world. He really liked people!” recalled Poon. “We shared inside jokes and he just made work – the world really – a lot more fun. He was not interested in superficial acquaintances. He was the social glue that held everything together, personally and professionally.”
“Steve was one of those people who I could go to for wisdom, both in work and in life,” added Cholia. “He was an engineer’s engineer but was also someone with a deeper wisdom about him. He taught Tai Chi and martial arts classes on campus and practiced meditation.”
“He had the unique combination of very strong technical skills and the personality to show that he cared about the work and the team,” said JGI Software Delivery Manager Set Sarrafan. “I learned a lot from Steve. He was someone who stays cool and calm and passes that feeling to the rest of the group.”
Chan is survived by his wife, Anya, and their two sons, as well as his parents, Chi and Sui, his sister, Sue, and brother, Stan.
To participate in the bike ride, contact Kjiersten Fagnan.
Carol Pott provided reporting for this story.
