It is with great sadness that we received the news of the passing away of Prof Helene Gelderblom from the Department of Informatics, Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and IT, University of Pretoria, on Saturday, 7 April 2018 in the Life Groenkloof Hospital.

Prof Gelderblom was born on 27 November 1963. She later married Prof Derik Gelderblom, a sociologist. They have two daughters, Magdalene (20) and Emma (16).

Prof Gelderblom was appointed at UP in November 2013 after having been a lecturer at UNISA for 23 years. Apart from her PhD and preceding degrees in computer science, she also completed an honours degree in psychology. She was an NRF-rated researcher and her research was primarily in the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and ICT in education. The main research foci were eye tracking in UX design, as well as usability evaluation and the design of technology for special user groups.

Prof Gelderblom was instrumental in establishing the Informatics Design Labs as a world class facility at UP. She also re-curriculated the programming courses presented in the Department of Informatics and made numerous videos for the first year students. She has delivered 16 master’s students and 4 doctoral students.

Prof Helene Gelderblom is leaving an enormous gap in the Department of Informatics but also in the HCI community world-wide. We will remember her for her kindness, enthusiasm, creativity and intelligence. She was an inspiration to her colleagues and students alike. A memorial service will be held on Friday, 13 April at 14:00 in the UP Chapel.

Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology