With deep regret, the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering announce the passing of Mrs Sumarié Koetsier (née Meintjes). Sumarié was both a loved colleague and exemplary alumni, receiving her Honours and Masters degrees here, both with distinction.

Her final year project earned her the prestigious Gerhard Geldenhuys Medal from the Operations Research Society of South Africa. After completing her undergraduate studies in Industrial Engineering, Sumarié joined the Department in 2015 as a graduate research assistant, wasting no time immersing herself further in complex network theory as applied to freight transport. She studied the inter-firm connections and patterns that emerge as organisations do business in the logistics arena. In pursuing her Master's degree, she published two peer-reviewed articles in the leading journals of her field, Transportation and Transport Research Part B, and conference outputs in Transportation Research Procedia. In fact, in 2015, while still busy with her Master's dissertation, she presented at the City Logistics Conference in Tenerife, Spain, scooping up the Outstanding Paper Award for PhD students from a competitive international cohort. After finishing her dissertation in 2016, she joined the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in their Urban Growth Modelling team. She remained active in the Department as examiner and moderator at both undergraduate and Honours levels.

Unfortunately, Covid complications in June required hospitalisation, where she gave birth to her and husband Cornelis' firstborn, a gorgeous girl, Liya. Sumarié waged a valiant struggle in hospital, which ended after five weeks on Sunday, 18 July 2021. Our deepest condolences to Cornelis, Liya, and the rest of the family and their friends. We will miss her vibrant personality, infectious laugh and inviting dimpled smile.