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.
Sean Arms and Ward Fisher, on behalf of the NSF Unidata Program Center staff