Regal, yet kind. Operatic, but folksy. Most of all, brilliance -- outshone only by deep integrity.

That was Sharon Dunwoody.

Her doctoral dissertation defense at Indiana University in 1978 was more celebration than debate. We knew her pathbreaking work on elite science communication showed academic "stardom" in the offing.

Little more than three decades later, Sharon became the first woman to receive the coveted Paul J. Deutschmann Award for Excellence in Research. "Firsts" were not important to her and Sharon's academic career was so stellar by then, gender likely never crossed the minds of any of us celebrating at the event.

A young colleague at the IU Media School last week wrote to me that Sharon Dunwoody's work on science journalism had greatly influenced her own research. What more could any social scientist like Sharon have wanted? To be an inspiration for an emerging first-rate scholar
-- and likely many more across the world -- surely is the ultimate.

Sterling character, success and friendship pervaded her entire life.

For so many of us who knew and loved her, the sorrow at Sharon Dunwoody's death is deep.