Vale Edmund Crampin, Rest in Peace

With incredible sadness we report the passing of Professor Edmund Crampin. He collapsed suddenly while on a bike ride on Saturday 15 May, 2021.

Professor Crampin joined the University in 2013, moving from New Zealand, as the Chair of Systems Biology, a joint appointment between the School of Mathematics and Statistics and the School of Biomedical Engineering. He quickly become a beloved and respected member of the University community, and his loss will be deeply felt by his many friends and colleagues at the University and beyond.

His educational background was in physics and mathematics, doing his DPhil at the University of Oxford, and throughout his distinguished career Professor Crampin used fundamental mathematical concepts and computer science to build models to understand biological processes and human diseases, with a particular interest in heart physiology. His major contribution was the establishment of new methods to model and describe cell physiology mathematically. These models take in the molecular, cellular and tissue scales, and he worked to model increasingly larger and more complex systems, including whole cells and organs. Professor Crampin was recently elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology for his work in this area.

At Melbourne, Professor Crampin has been pivotal to establishing mathematical and systems biology as a research strength and he excelled in the challenging task of bringing the life sciences, biomedicine, mathematics and engineering disciplines together. Colleagues describe him as a kind and gentle human, with an infectious smile; fellow mathematical biologist, Professor James McCaw calls him “my friend, I just happened to be lucky enough to work with”. Outside of work, Professor Crampin was a dedicated and loving partner and father who enjoyed cycling and spending time with his family and friends in the outdoors.

His PhD supervisor (Professor Philip Maini FRS, University of Oxford) wrote words that we think best sums up Professor Crampin: "Edmund was one of the nicest people I have ever met, and also one of the brightest."

Edmund Crampin (centre) at the start of the Giro Della Donna in March this year, with his friend James McCaw. This is the Edmund that will be remembered, with a wonderful smile on his face. He will be dearly missed.

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