>
> It is with great sadness that we write to inform you that our colleague
> Dennis Heimbigner died in January 2026. Dennis was a valued member of the
> netCDF development team at the Unidata Program Center from 2008 until his
> retirement in 2024.
Among Dennis’ many contributions to the netCDF ecosystem were his
> implementations of the DAP2 and DAP4 remote data access protocols, along
> with his work on the ncZarr data model, which creates a mapping between the
> netCDF-4 data model and the Zarr version 2 data model. While Dennis
> preferred to remain in the background, he cared deeply about his work and
> about creating useful tools for the Unidata community. Even after leaving
> the Program Center, Dennis continued to participate in community meetings,
> working to shape the future of netCDF.
We will miss our long-time colleague and friend.
>
> Ward Fisher and Sean Arms, on behalf of the NSF Unidata Program Center
> staff