The TU Dresden mourns the death of Prof. Dr. Suzanne Eaton (*1959 in Oakland, California, USA), who died far too early in Crete in July 2019.

Since 2015, Suzanne Eaton has been Professor of Invertebrate Developmental Cell Biology at the Biotechnology Center of the TU Dresden (BIOTEC) whilst continuing her position as senior group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG). Since 2018, she has also been co-spokesperson of the new Cluster of Excellence "Physics of Life" at the TU Dresden. These positions were her most recent contributions to her remarkable ongoing contributions in shaping the biomedical research landscape in Dresden.

Suzanne obtained her Ph.D. in microbiology at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1988. She then worked as a Postdoc in Tom Kornberg's laboratory at the University of California at San Francisco. Suzanne came to Dresden in 2001 as a founding group leader at the MPI-CBG. Previously, she worked at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg as a Postdoc in Kai Simons' laboratory and then as a staff scientist.

Suzanne was an inspirational scientist and colleague. She combined an unquenchable curiosity with gracefulness and charm. Her smile and deftness accompanied an ability to ask remarkable questions and to enliven discussions with acuity and insight, often bringing envigorating surprise and a delightful perspective. She has inspired many scientists, whether young or established, with her love for research, her interests and her openness to a wide range of questions and approaches. For Suzanne, interdisciplinarity was innate and she managed a work-life balance with seeming ease and grace. Suzanne has made a decisive contribution to the emergence of the Dresden biomedical research community and she will be sorely missed. We have lost a highly esteemed colleague, an excellent scientist and an inspirational teacher.

Suzanne Eaton leaves behind her husband and two sons. Our deepest sympathy goes to them. With sadness and gratitude, we will remember Suzanne Eaton with honour.

Family, friends and colleagues are paying tribute to Suzanne Eaton’s life and legacy on the MPI-CBG website: https://www.mpi-cbg.de/suzanne-eaton/