Karen Marion Hiiemae, professor of biomedical and chemical engineering in L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, passed away from cancer in her home in early September.

Hiiemae left nothing short of a legacy to family, friends, colleagues and generations of students. She was 66.

A memorial service will be today at 4 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel. A reception will follow in the lobby of the Heroy Geology Laboratory.

Born in England, Hiiemae was educated at the University of London, where she earned a bachelor’s degree, a doctorate in anatomy and a Bachelor of Dental Surgery. Before she came to Syracuse University in 1986, she was a distinguished scientist and professor at Yale University, Harvard College and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Hiiemae held a number of positions at Syracuse, namely vice president for research and graduate studies, professor of biology and professor of bioengineering and neuroscience.

Yet Hiiemae did not limit herself to these titles.

‘She was my mentor,’ said Shannon Magari, senior scientist and vice president of health sciences at Colden Corporation, a specialty services firm. ‘She was also my adviser and professor as an undergraduate, and she helped me finish my master’s thesis long distance.’

Devoted acts like these were not rare for Hiiemae.

‘She was a very giving person,’ said Gustav Engbretson, department chair of biomedical and chemical engineering. ‘She worked tirelessly with students, helping the university increase its number of Goldwater Scholars and other high honors for well-deserving students. She would give them practice interviews and help them write their personal essays for whatever award they were attempting to get. She was a huge advocate for students.’

And the feeling was mutual. Hiiemae’s husband Ronald Holmwood expressed her lasting affect.

‘So many of her old students have contacted me and sent lovely cards, which shows how much she meant to them. People are coming from all over the country for the memorial service. She was an enormously generous spirit and always had time for everybody.’

Passionate, inspiring, dedicated, involved and sympathetic were just a few of the words used to describe Hiiemae. Students she has had look back on her influence with great appreciation.

Ashwin Khobragade, who graduated in 2004, recalls Hiiemae’s classes with fondness.

‘She was very talented and had a practical approach. … Her broad range of experience helped me gather knowledge about the subject,’ Khobragade said. ‘She definitely knew what she was talking about.’

While it can be said that many teachers are passionate about their students, Hiiemae was in a league of her own, said Samuel Gorovitz, professor of philosophy and former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

He agreed that she was most passionate about her students, but argued her perspective was different.

‘It’s the particular form that the commitment took – it is the combination of huge expectations and high work and high standards.’

Hiiemae was committed to helping students achieve the best of which they were capable, and often that caused considerable discomfort because it was more than the students thought they were capable of achieving, Gorovitz said.

‘She never thought the purpose was for students to be comfortable,’ he said. ‘Over and over again, she proved she was right when the students did more than they would have thought.’

Hiiemae was a distinguished scholar and was recognized internationally for her work on the mechanics of chewing and swallowing. This was especially important for the aging population, who can lose that ability and have difficulty in feeding, said biomedical and chemical engineering chair Engbretson.

She wrote numerous articles, book chapters and reviews, many of them about tongue movements in feeding and speech.

More recently, Hiiemae worked with women in science and engineering. Magari, senior scientist at the Colden Corporation, emphasized her role as a woman scientist by pointing out the weight she pulled for women engineers. This is especially significant because there are so few of them, Magari said.

‘She was a well-balanced woman and a damn good female scientific role model,’ Magari said. ‘She showed me that a woman can be a successful scientist and a compassionate and loving wife, mother, colleague and friend.’

Passionate about her students, research and family, Hiiemae also spread her interests among other hobbies.

‘She was a painter, and she liked to garden and travel,’ Holmwood, her husband, said. ‘She was also a good cook.’

Published on October 7, 2007 at 12:00 pm