Nicholas Cozzarelli has died. His excellent work falling under the heading of nucleic acids enzymology is well known, and led to his election to the National Academy of Sciences. His leadership of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has also been widely admired. An obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle has the quote from Solomon Snyder:

He was the finest journal editor with whom I have ever dealt, and it is generally accepted that he was the best editor of the PNAS since its inception in 1915,” said Dr. Solomon Snyder, the journal’s senior editor and a neuroscientist at the Johns Hopkins University medical school.

Nick revolutionized what had become a stodgy, though highly prestigious, journal by opening it up to the general scientific public,” Snyder said. Professor Cozzarellli’s “caring, ebullient personality” and “warm one-to-one” approach inspired the 143 members of the editorial board to devote vast amounts of their time to the journal, Snyder said.

PNAS has tributes to his life and work, including an editorial from Bruce Alberts and links to newspaper obituaries.

We offer our condolences to his family.