Obituary

Psycholinguist Uta Sassenberg died at the end of November. With her passing away the cluster has lost a dear, competent and upright colleague.

Uta Sassenberg Foto: private

Uta Sassenberg was a much-valued member of the research project B.A.L.I. from 2009 onwards, where she studied gestures and alexithymia until only last month. Not long after she joined the Department of Neurology, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychiatry at the German Sport University Cologne she was diagnosed with a severe illness but continued her research with the utmost commitment and earned her doctorate in 2010.

Uta Sassenberg studied psychology and criminology at the University of Lincoln, UK, where she was awarded her bachelor of science degree in 2002. She received her master's degree in psycholinguistics in 2004 from the University of Edinburgh and continued her research as a doctoral student at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, where she completed her doctoral thesis on "Thinking hands: How co-speech gestures reflect cognitive processes" in 2010.

Uta Sassenberg’s research provides an important contribution to the study of gestures from a cognitive psychology perspective and the results of her work are significant for theory construction in gesture research and in cognitive science. She was able to provide the first empirical evidence for the "gestures-as-simulated-action" model of gesture production. Her findings were published in high-profile journals and further publications she co-authored are currently in preparation.

When Uta Sassenberg learned of her illness she stood at the beginning of the academic and private life she had always wished for and worked toward. She nevertheless bore her illness with admirable fortitude and optimism. Uta Sassenberg was a passionate researcher, dedicated to the study of gestures until the end.

Uta Sassenberg died at the early age of 36. She will be greatly missed.

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