I first met Jon in the early 1990s when I had just moved to the UK and he moved to Cambridge. We had been emailing for a couple of years about selective attention, perceptual grouping and negative priming. He invited me to visit Cambridge and I hopped on a train expecting to meet a distinguished Cambridge Don who, given his already stunning body of work, was bound to be far older than me! Instead, I was confronted by the handsome, young, Jon ultra cool in his T-shirt and leather jacket. Within about 5 minutes he had resolved the problem with a complex pattern of results I had been struggling with for months – really!
Like many, I was blown away by the sheer brilliance and speed of Jon’s mind, made even more salient by just what a nice guy he was. Knowing Jon was a genuine privilege and a wonderful lesson in humility. I met him a couple of months ago quite by accident when walking down a London street. We chatted for a few minutes and he was delighted with his Royal Society Professorship that allowed him the freedom to focus on research and he told me he was beginning to re-visit many of the theoretical issues that had engaged him all those years ago in Cambridge. We will never know what breakthroughs he would have made. Jon was a wonderful inspiration to me, always happy to give advice, and unbelievably generous with his time. I am truly devastated and my thoughts are with my friend and colleague, Nilli, and their two boys whom he loved so much
Like many, I was blown away by the sheer brilliance and speed of Jon’s mind, made even more salient by just what a nice guy he was. Knowing Jon was a genuine privilege and a wonderful lesson in humility. I met him a couple of months ago quite by accident when walking down a London street. We chatted for a few minutes and he was delighted with his Royal Society Professorship that allowed him the freedom to focus on research and he told me he was beginning to re-visit many of the theoretical issues that had engaged him all those years ago in Cambridge. We will never know what breakthroughs he would have made. Jon was a wonderful inspiration to me, always happy to give advice, and unbelievably generous with his time. I am truly devastated and my thoughts are with my friend and colleague, Nilli, and their two boys whom he loved so much
