Lisa Travis

It is hard for me to capture how Noam has impacted my life, I’m sure a difficult task for everyone. My main take-away is that he is not just brilliant, something that he has shared with the world, but he is also caring, something he consistently and generously shared with his students. His academic generosity is the most obvious, shown through the thesis chapters covered in comments that I still have in my files, the serious consideration he gave my ideas and his insistence that I could even take them further (without making me feel like they weren’t good in the first place), and the willingness to meet with me long after graduation, again with detailed comments on a paper that he claimed not to have read carefully. But it is his personal generosity, which came unexpectedly and when most needed, that is my most valuable gift from him. This generosity showed itself in two ways—he gave me time and advice during a personal crisis, but, very important to me, during this time he never let up on me intellectually. He may not even remember this, but through his actions he taught me an enormous amount about how to balance support and respect, a lesson that has been my guide in many subsequent situations. Happy Birthday, Noam, and thank you endlessly!