UCLA post-doctoral fellow dies at age 29
By Harold Lee
Oct. 7, 2004 9:00 p.m.
Kristina D.Y. Louie, a UCLA researcher and post-doctoral fellow,
died Sept. 3 of encephalitis at the West Los Angeles Kaiser
Permanente. She was 29.
Born Nov. 13, 1974 in New York City, Louie grew up in San
Francisco. She studied at Colgate University in New York and
Occidental College in Los Angeles as an undergraduate.
Louie recently received her Ph.D. with the Department of Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology in the spring and was researching in the
laboratory of David Jacobs, a professor in the same department.
She studied human effects on organisms, particularly seahorses
and pipefish, living in estuaries ““ aquatic ecosystems
““ and her research was conducted all along the west coast,
from Alaska to Baja, Mexico. She planned to continue her research
in Mexico and Central America.
Conservation and the welfare of the environment were the
motivations for her research, Jacobs said.
This concern for the environment extended to her everyday life
as well.
“She would come … and go into our trash cans and go,
“˜This can be recycled, that can be recycled,'”
said Isabel Rosario, a friend of Louie’s since Louie started
graduate school in 1996.
Louie also taught undergraduates and piqued student interest
both in the laboratory and on the field.
“She was an exceptionally devoted teacher,” Jacobs
said, noting that she took classes on trips, sometimes to Santa
Cruz.
When Louie taught, she spread the enthusiasm she had for her
research to her students, giving them chances to do their own
research.
“You can have fun doing work, that was one of her
things,” Rosario said.
Though Louie was often busy with her research, she didn’t
let it dominate her life and often took opportunities to relax and
have fun.
“The best thing about her is that she wouldn’t put
things on hold,” Rosario said.
Some of Louie’s hobbies included snorkeling, kayaking and
rock climbing. She also loved to bake and brought baked goods for
her colleagues.
Louie was especially attentive to how she treated people, Jacobs
said.
She always remembered everyone’s birthday and brought her
colleagues souvenirs from the places she travelled for research,
Rosario said.
“Even though she was a vegan, she would invite us to a
steakhouse and find something that she could eat,” she
said.
Louie is survived by her father, Reginald Louie of Castro
Valley, mother Lynnanne Holden of San Francisco, sister Marissa
Holden of San Francisco and brother Mikkel Louie of Sammamish,
Wash.
