Indiana University mourns the passing of grad student and former rower Karlijn Keijzer 
 
 July 18, 2014 
 
 EDITOR'S NOTE, 3 p.m. Friday, July 18, 2014: This release has been updated throughout. Please note: An earlier version mistakenly reported that Keijzer had received her master's degree from IU. 
 
 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
 
 BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Karlijn Keijzer, a Dutch citizen who was a doctoral student in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, was among the passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down Thursday, July 17, over Ukraine, leaving no survivors. 
 
 Keijzer, 25, also had been a member of the women’s rowing team during the 2011 season. 
 
 “On behalf of the entire Indiana University community, I want to express my deepest sympathies to Karlijn’s family and friends over her tragic death,” Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie said. “Karlijn was an outstanding student and a talented athlete, and her passing is a loss to the campus and the university. Our hearts also go out to the families of all the victims of this senseless act.” 
 
 "We are heartbroken by the tragic death of our student, Karlijn Keijzer," said Larry Singell, executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "Karlijn was, by all accounts, a bright star in the IU constellation, a gifted student and athlete, and a talented researcher with a passion for making the world better through science. This is a profoundly sad day in the College. We offer our deepest condolences to her family, colleagues and friends." 
 
 In the chemistry department, Keijzer was part of a research team that uses large-scale computer simulations to study small-molecule reactions involving certain metals. She was co-author of a research article published this year in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. 
 
 "Karlijn was a bright, talented doctoral student, a diligent researcher and a dear friend to all of us who worked with her in our research group," said her doctoral advisor, Mu-Hyun Baik, associate professor of chemistry and informatics. "She was a kind, happy young woman full of ideas about the future. She inspired us all with her optimism about how science will make Earth a better place." 
 
 She also served as an associate instructor in the chemistry department, teaching introductory organic chemistry as well as 400-level courses in biochemistry and biosynthesis. 
 
 "She worked on several research projects, all related to improving human health," Baik said. "The last piece of research work she completed before heading out to catch her flight to her short summer vacation was preparing a computer simulation on bryostatin, an anti-cancer drug and a promising drug candidate for treating Alzheimer's disease. 
 
 "We are devastated and mourn the loss of a brilliant, beloved member of IU's chemistry family." 
 
 "It's a very sad day for the department," added David Giedroc, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry. "She had a lot of friends in the community, and they'll take this news very hard." 
 
 Giedroc said he met Keijzer when she arrived at IU in 2010 and, over the years, watched her become part of an increasingly cohesive group of students. About 200 graduate students are in the department, and Keijzer was registered to take classes this fall. 
 
 "She struck me right then as a very smart, very confident young woman who had a passion for science and for sports that we don't often see," he said. "She was always just a delightful individual." 
 
 The "stroke" of Varsity 8 boat 
 
 Keijzer was a member of IU’s Varsity 8 boat during the 2011 season, helping them to a 14-5 record. A talented rower in the Netherlands, she was recruited to row at IU even though she had only one year of eligibility. She earned Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete honors as well as Academic All-Big Ten accolades following the 2011 season. A decorated junior rower, Keijzer participated in the European Rowing Junior Championships in 2006 and the World Rowing Junior Championships in 2007. 
 
 “The Indiana Rowing family is deeply saddened by the news of Karlijn’s sudden passing,” Indiana head rowing coach Steve Peterson said. “She came to us for one year as a graduate student and truly wanted to pursue rowing. Our condolences go out to her family and friends in this very tough time.” 
 
 Her impact was impressive. 
 
 “Karlijn was the ‘stroke’ of the Varsity 8 boat for us," Peterson said. "That is the person who sets the rhythm for the boat and everyone follows her. She was unquestionably the leader of the best boat we had that year. It was the first boat that got us into the national rankings and had a great season. It also helped propel our program towards the success that we had this past season, and we all know that we can trace it back to that boat that was led by Karlijn. 
 
 “Academically, she was straight A student, so she was outstanding there. But her biggest strength was her personality on the team. Any picture she you see of her, she was always smiling or happy or joking around with someone. She was extremely supportive of her teammates and had a tremendous enthusiasm. She was exactly the type of student-athlete any coach would want on their team. 
 
 Peterson said that when he met with Keijzer after she finished her eligibility, all she wanted to talk about was the future of the rowing program. 
 
 “She knew that we were headed in the right direction, and she was genuinely excited about it. Then this past year, we saw that come to fruition and she contacted me and said ‘I told you so.’ So she was as excited as anyone else for us as a program and the success we had.” ||||| “I’m not an overly emotional person,” says Steve Peterson, the head women’s rowing coach at Indiana University. 
 
 But late Friday afternoon, while talking about Karlijn Keijzer (pronounced Kar-line Kite-ser)–a former Indiana University rower who was killed on Malaysia Airlines Fight 17 on Thursday–Peterson reached his breaking point. She was 25. “One of my favorite memories that keeps popping into my head, and it makes me so sad to say this,” Peterson says, unable to continue his words. Between several pauses to let the tears pass, he explains why he can no longer hide his grief. It was such a small thing, really, but it meant so much. 
 
 After every season, Peterson conducts exit interviews with his athletes. Keijzer was from the Netherlands, and under NCAA rules was eligible to row only one year while she pursued her graduate studies in chemistry. Keijzer was a key recruit for Peterson, who was looking to draw more international athletes, with more experience, to help keep Indiana competitive in the Big Ten. Keijzer was a terrific fit. She had competed in prestigious events, like the European Rowing Junior Championships and the World Rowing Junior Championships. She had Olympic aspirations. 
 
 During that 2011 season, she helped transform the Indiana program, leading the Hoosiers to a 14-5 record. She rowed with the Varsity 8 – “the big cheese,” says Peterson – and sat in the “stroke” position. In rowing, the stroke sits closest to the coxswain, and is not unlike the boat’s quarterback. “The stroke sets the rhythm, the pace,” says Peterson. “The best rower sits in the stroke seat.” Peterson calls Keijzer one of the best rowers he’s ever coached, and he’s been at it for 30 years. 
 
 But during that exit interview that Peterson can’t bear to describe, Keijzer didn’t want to talk about her own performance. “She was just encouraging me, telling me, “Your on the right path, keep doing what you're doing,” says Peterson. Smitten with Bloomington, Keijzer wound up staying on the IU campus, ditching a potential rowing career for the school’s PhD program in chemistry. So this season, she saw Peterson’s team make it all the way to the NCAA championships for the first time in school history. Peterson traces this success directly back to Keijzer’s boat, which made IU nationally relevant and helped bolster recruiting. “After we finally made it, she says ‘I told you you can do it,'” says Peterson. “She was just so ridiculously supportive.” 
 
 The Malaysia Flight 17 tragedy has already cost so much. In Keijzer, a senseless act cost of group of rowers a beloved teammate, her fellow chemistry students a popular colleague, and the world a scientist intent on fighting cancer and other diseases. 
 
 David Giedroc, professor and chair of Indiana’s chemistry department, remembers Keijzer walking into his office as soon as she got on campus. She asked if he would advise him. “Here was this confident young lady, passionate about science and sports,” says Giedroc. “High level science and high level NCAA sports – that’s a fairly exotic combination for a graduate student.” During her first year at IU, when she was both rowing and studying, Keijzer would sometimes fall asleep in her lab chair. Still, she somehow managed to make the 6:00 am practices. 
 
 “We’d be in the locker room at 5:30, it would be windy, rainy," says Jaclyn Riedel, one of Keijzer’s teammates. "But she was kind of leading the charge, cheering everyone on. She was just infectious.”The Amsterdam girl took to Indiana, calling herself a “Dutch Hoosier.” To fit in, she came to one party dressed as an ear of corn. “She wore black spandex, a long yellow shirt with frayed edges, and her hair was green,” says Riedel. Her teammates would ask her for informal Dutch lessons, and when they found out the word for garden gnome – kabouter – a select few, including Keijzer and Riedel, started calling themselves “the kabouters.” They headed to Home Depot to pick up a few statuettes. The gnomes became good luck charms. Riedel would carry one in her backpack, “though it never went into the boat,” she says. 
 
 After wrapping up her rowing career, Keijzer kept pursuing her doctorate. “As a computational chemist, she had enormous potential,” says Giedroc. This summer, Keijzer was working in the Netherlands, collaborating with researchers at VU University Amsterdam on simulations of anti-tumor drugs. At IU, she was working on developing a computer program that calculates how anti-cancer molecules interacted with partner proteins that might play a role in cancer or Alzheimer's disease. 
 
 “She was so passionate pharmacological chemistry, and helping people that way,” says Meghan McCormick, Keijzer's lab mate for four years. “Cancer was just one obstacle she was tackling. She also took on a project seeking better HPV vaccines.” Keijzer and McCormick were co-authors on a study just published in the Journal of the American Chemistry Society , titled: “Understanding Intrinsically Irreversible, Non-Nernstian, Two-Electron Redox Processes: A Combined Experimental and Computational Study of the Electrochemical Activation of Platinum(IV) Antitumor Prodrugs.” McCormick offers the lay explanation: “Many second and third generation cancer drugs aren’t working as well as they could be. We think we can make better ones, based on the methodology and tools that we used.” “She was just a strong woman,” says McCormick. “As a woman in science, a woman in chemistry, she was a big inspiration. We always felt like we had to prove ourselves a little bit more, to fight through the biases. We fed off each other’s strengths.” McCormick starts tearing up. “It’s certainly going to take a very long time to walk into that lab, and not see her sitting next to me,” says McCormick. “I’m so used to seeing her smiling at me, drinking coffee, giving me encouragement.” 
 
 Keijzer was on the Malaysia Airways flight with her boyfriend, bound for a summer vacation in Indonesia before she returned to Indiana. Kuala Lumpur was a layover. When Peterson, her old coach, got word from a former rower on Thursday that Keijzer was most likely on the plane, he was in a car with his family, on his way to visiting a friend in northern Ohio. He didn’t want to believe it. When he saw the confirmation on Keijzer’s Facebook page, the devastation set in. 
 
 “She was such an optimist,” says Peterson. “Not just for herself, but for her team, and for everybody around her. She was always there, smiling, a best friend. That's now all cut way too short. That’s what really makes me sad.”
– Just one American was among the 298 killed on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, but also among the victims was an Indiana University doctoral student. Karlijn Keijzer, a 25-year-old Dutch citizen, was a chemistry researcher and, in 2011, a member of the women's rowing team. "Karlijn was, by all accounts, a bright star in the IU constellation, a gifted student and athlete, and a talented researcher with a passion for making the world better through science," says the executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in a press release. "This is a profoundly sad day in the College." She came to IU in 2010, and was currently a member of a chemistry research team and an associate instructor in the chemistry department. Under NCAA rules, Keijzer was only eligible to row for one year, but that was enough to make an impact on the head women's rowing coach. He tells Time she was one of the best he's coached in three decades, and she helped propel the school on the path that took it to the NCAA championships for the first time this season. She was registered for classes this fall, but was en route for a summer vacation in Indonesia with her boyfriend when she was killed. The American killed on the flight, 19-year-old Quinn Schansman, was born in the US but spent most of his life in the Netherlands while keeping his dual citizenship, the New York Times reports. A business student and soccer player, he was on his way to meet his family for a vacation in Indonesia, where his grandfather was born.