Sargur (Hari) Srihari, 1949-2022
Online Guestbook
Thank you very much for visiting. We invite you to share your thoughts on his passing using the guestbook below.
You can read about Hari’s life here. Service details and information about honoring Hari are available here.
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Tribute for Prof. Sargur Srihari
I was deeply saddened to learn of Hari’s recent passing. He was a model professor who had a profound influence on generations of students. As we pass through life, we are lucky if we cross paths with a mentor who opens a door and nudges us through it, even if we do not realize the significance of the gesture at the time. The long-term impact on the life, career and happiness of the mentee, once on the other side of the portal, can be staggering and must be a source of eternal satisfaction for the mentor.
I first worked with Hari in 1980 when, as an aimless undergraduate, he invited me to take his graduate seminar on image analysis. The following semester he encouraged me to become a graduate student and accept a position as a research assistant on an NSF grant. That was a life-changing event that introduced me to the wonderful world of research where I discovered the joys of creating something from nothing – converting nuggets of ideas into gleaming new inventions by a combination of inspiration, hard work, and persistence.
Those years at U.B., including the camaraderie and unique esprit de corps of the USPS projects, provided a chance for me to grow as a researcher, meet many interesting people, including the woman who would become my wife and companion for the last four decades, travel to international conferences, lead my own research group, and become a mentor myself. The totality of this experience was an incredible education that provided the basis for my subsequent career as a research leader in Silicon Valley.
All of this happened because Hari beckoned me on a journey through the research universe that has been incredibly satisfying and led to a state of blissful happiness. For that I will be forever and deeply grateful. I am truly fortunate that Hari was there when I needed some direction. He was a giant at the University at Buffalo who will be sorely missed by all of us who knew him. My thoughts and prayers are with Hari’s wife Rohini and their family in this time of sorrow. This early loss seems so unjust.
Jonathan Hull,
March 19, 2022
I was deeply saddened to learn of Hari’s recent passing. He was a model professor who had a profound influence on generations of students. As we pass through life, we are lucky if we cross paths with a mentor who opens a door and nudges us through it, even if we do not realize the significance of the gesture at the time. The long-term impact on the life, career and happiness of the mentee, once on the other side of the portal, can be staggering and must be a source of eternal satisfaction for the mentor.
I first worked with Hari in 1980 when, as an aimless undergraduate, he invited me to take his graduate seminar on image analysis. The following semester he encouraged me to become a graduate student and accept a position as a research assistant on an NSF grant. That was a life-changing event that introduced me to the wonderful world of research where I discovered the joys of creating something from nothing – converting nuggets of ideas into gleaming new inventions by a combination of inspiration, hard work, and persistence.
Those years at U.B., including the camaraderie and unique esprit de corps of the USPS projects, provided a chance for me to grow as a researcher, meet many interesting people, including the woman who would become my wife and companion for the last four decades, travel to international conferences, lead my own research group, and become a mentor myself. The totality of this experience was an incredible education that provided the basis for my subsequent career as a research leader in Silicon Valley.
All of this happened because Hari beckoned me on a journey through the research universe that has been incredibly satisfying and led to a state of blissful happiness. For that I will be forever and deeply grateful. I am truly fortunate that Hari was there when I needed some direction. He was a giant at the University at Buffalo who will be sorely missed by all of us who knew him. My thoughts and prayers are with Hari’s wife Rohini and their family in this time of sorrow. This early loss seems so unjust.
Jonathan Hull,
March 19, 2022
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