CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Former students, colleagues, and the UVA community are remembering the man who died in the five-vehicle crash Sunday in Madison County as a biology professor who taught at the University of Virginia for 35 years. 69-year old Masashi Kawasaki was born in Tokyo and joined the UVA faculty in 1990. He’s being remember in a post by the UVA Department of Biology, which you can click here to read, and has included a link for those who wish to share memories.

He’s most recognized for his courses in animal behavior, especially a lab wherein students monitored the mating behaviors of cichlid fish and the circadian rhythms of hamsters.
He had also won multiple teaching awards. Another memory is posted by some who calls him one of his closest friends since 1979 when they started their PhD research in the same laboratory at Sophia University in Tokyo and remembers him as someone “with great skill” who “patiently taught me how to assemble my first electrophysiology setup”. Another memory says “without his help, I wouldn’t be able to have the motivation and passion to be a scientist”.
He was the only person to die in the crash, which happened when a 5th driver was unable to stop in time when it came upon four other vehicles at a red light.