By Barbara Ortutay
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Brian Bosart brought sunshine to his windowless office day after
day. Described by those around him as hard-working and always
cheerful, the atmospheric sciences graduate student died Monday
from injuries sustained in a car accident, while driving home from
a vacation in Mexico with his friends.
“He was the happiest person I’ve ever met in my
life,” said graduate student Amy Boonsiriseth, who shared an
office with Bosart for the past three years.
“We have a windowless office, so during the summer we
liked to sit outside and have ice cream,” she continued.
“We probably had the funnest office in the department ““
even though we didn’t have a window, it was the sunniest
office.”
Bosart, 26, received his master’s degree in 1998 and was
employed as a research assistant in the Atmospheric Sciences
Department. He was about a year away from receiving his doctorate
in the field, said Roger Wakimoto, Bosart’s faculty advisor
and chair of the department.
“I don’t think there is any question he had a very
promising research career,” Wakimoto said, adding that it was
Bosart’s personality and concern for the rest of the
department that made him really stand out.
“He was the most popular graduate student in the
department,” Wakimoto added. “He was very concerned
about the social well-being of the department and he did everything
he could to promote more togetherness between students and
faculty.”
In addition to his research, Bosart was also a teaching
assistant for introductory classes and the president of the
department’s student chapter, Chi Epsilon Pi.
“Students felt they were able to talk to him at any time
they wanted,” Boonsiriseth said.
In his free time, Bosart managed the department’s softball
team, Ball Lightning. He also played tennis and he loved to travel.
When he moved to L.A. from New York, for example Bosart made the
2,500 mile-journey by car with his mother, Wakimoto said.
As for his research, Bosart was analyzing data collected at
field projects over the Atlantic Ocean. He will not see his first
paper published, as it is scheduled to appear in the National
Weather Review in July. A second paper he wrote was also recently
accepted for publication by the same journal.
“He plays hard and he works hard,” Boonsiriseth
said. “He was in the office every day at 8, and he’d be
there until 6 or 6:30. He always said he naturally wakes up at
7.”
With a smile, she added Bosart always carried around “the
oldest, worn backpack.”
Despite all his hard work, Bosart always kept an inspiring
attitude.
“Of all the years I’d been here he was probably the
one student who never complained,” Wakimoto said. “He
always had a smile on his face.”
Bosart is survived by his parents, Helen and Lance, his brother
Eric and many other relatives and friends.