On Oct. 17, longtime and beloved College of Science and Mathematicsfaculty member Maria Eugenia Sabbatini, PhD, passed away after a months-long struggle with advanced kidney cancer.
Sabbatini, who was a full professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, moved to the United States from Argentina in 2006 after completing a PhD in physiology at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. She was accepted into a postdoctoral position at the University of Michigan under John Williams, PhD, where her research was focused on better understanding processes involving the exocrine pancreas.
“When I first met her, she was excited about coming to the U.S. and enthusiastic about beginning her research in my laboratory,” Williams said. “She got along well with the other researchers in my group and participated in all our laboratory social events.”
“No doubt, she ranks as one of the most outstanding students I ever had,” said Liliana Bianciotti, PhD, Sabbatini’s PhD mentor at UBA. “I am very proud of her achievements, a result of her remarkable commitment to research and teaching demonstrated by her careful and systematic approach to her work.
Sabbatini met her husband, Michael Murray, PhD, in 2010 while Murray was working for an environmental nonprofit and teaching part-time at the University of Michigan. Their work differed greatly – Sabbatini’s research focused on pancreas physiology while Murray focused on environmental science and policy. Although they both had an interest in science, what brought them together had nothing to do with academics.
“We met through a salsa dance class,” said Murray, a faculty member in Biological Sciences.
Dance was one of Sabbatini’s great joys. Early on, she and Murray spent much of their free time dancing salsa, bachata, merengue, cumbia and cha-cha, and he made efforts to learn the more challenging tango, which Sabbatini enjoyed.
The two married in 2012 and moved to Augusta in 2013 after obtaining positions at Augusta University. Sabbatini became a fixture in biological sciences. Her time in the college was marked by the same ferocious zeal she had for dancing, pouring her efforts into research, teaching and service. Those who knew her noted that Sabbatini’s work ethic, passion for research and kindness were tremendous and obvious.
“She was just completely animated by her work,” Murray said. “She was in her lab seven days a week. She would move all around the lab, in a way that was like a dance. I would see her throughout the day in my office and would know her footsteps just by her pace.”
Even after her diagnosis in February, Sabbatini continued her work. She went into surgery immediately but still managed to take part in a National Institutes of Health conference call from her hospital bed just days later. She worked with students and colleagues to publish a paper over the summer while undergoing chemotherapy and immunotherapy and even chaired promotion and tenure committees in August and September.
Sabbatini’s research on pancreatic cancer reached across her discipline, and she collaborated with faculty in several colleges. Among her collaborators were researchers at AU’s Medical College of Georgia and the Department of Psychological Sciences in the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Laurence Miller, PhD, a researcher of behavioral pharmacology, co-authored two publications with Sabbatini and observed that her collaborative spirit was emblematic of her approach to research.
Sabbatini is survived by her husband, Murray; her parents and brother in Argentina; her in-laws in Colorado; and her two cats, Sunny and Peachita. Her celebration of life is being planned for February 2025, in which current and former co-workers, students, family and friends can come together to memorialize her lasting contributions to the people in her life, her field and the institution to which she gave so much of herself.
