I first met Dr. Gao when I was 23. Very soon I was impressed by his unbelievable energy level and amused by the diversified CAPSL team. Every time when he was present regardless of teaching a class, or having a meeting, or sitting in a seminar, everyone could immediately sense a great deal of excitement, aspiration, enthusiasm, and curiosity in the air. Dr. Gao inspired me and to me Dr. Gao is always a respectable and admirable figure.

When I was getting married, Dr. Gao and Mrs. Gao played the role of my parents because my own parents couldn't make it to the wedding. Now I see God's perfect arrangement: my family and Dr. Gao's family were tightly bound by those precious life moments. The wedding took place 17 years ago, but when I am looking at the pictures I can still feel the joy, warmth, and happiness like yesterday.

I read the obituary a few times and it is a true summary and testimony of Dr. Gao's life. He was pure-minded with a sole passion for researching and learning. His unbelievable enthusiasm was inspirational. His kindness, passion, and compassion were genuine. In a world crowded with hypocrisies and fakes, Dr. Gao was one of a kind: "He only saw the best in people and never had a bad thing to say about anyone." 

I'd like to express my deepest condolences to Peggy, Nick and family.

First time I met Prof. Gao in 1982 at the Laboratory for Computer Science of MIT. Immediately I realized that he was a very smart and polite person. And I was surprised that he was a graduate student (I thought he was a professor). He told me he had a hard time in his country and was selected as a student to the United States. I was impressed at his excellence.

大约两个星期前听到高老师去世的噩耗，我非常的震惊，不敢相信这是真的。完全无法接受高老师这么早就离我们而去。虽然毕业已经11年了，我跟高老师大概每三个月或者节日时都会通话聊天，每两年也总能找到机会见一次面，非常享受每次跟高老师的聊天和会面。无论是在电话里还是饭桌上，高老师总是中气十足声音洪亮，语气坚定自信，目光炯炯，完全不像个古稀老人的，却像一个时刻准备提刀出门大杀四方的好汉。我以为这样regularly的不期而遇会绵延很久，却没曾想到我们师生的缘分就此嘎然而止，真是让人无比伤痛。

我是2004年9月份进入CAPSL成为高老师的博士生，那时候我已经29岁了，在工业界也工作的5年。因为从工业界立即切换到学术界，总是不大适应，看paper，上研讨班的时候总是喜欢站在工程师的角度挑拣这个，臧否这个，说话提问题的时候也年轻气盛，各种的夹枪带棒，自以为看法尖锐和犀利。高老师从来也不生气，总是很温和的微笑的看着我，让我说完。他也不反驳我，反而鼓励我说下去，让我穷尽自己固有的思维，然后就我的看法提出他的问题。这些问题也不尖锐也不一针见血，甚至让我觉得与话题貌似无关，却让我有一拳打到棉花的感觉。最初的两三年里，我并没有提体会到这样的交互有何特别之处。但是到后来， 经过长时间的潜移默化，我的思考方式越来越不一样，开始能够从跟深刻的角度和本质的层面来看待一个问题，我慢慢的开始认同高老师的学术观点。尤其是毕业之后，随着岁月的冲洗和生活的磨砺，高老师在我大脑里播下的种子让我受益匪浅。你无法描述这种喜悦的感受，逢到Capsl的同学或者高老师的旧友，每次谈到高老师，我总是跟对方说：高老师是个有大智慧的人，无论哪方面。

除了学术方面，高老师是个历史爱好者，喜欢看历史书，喜欢跟我谈论历史上的人或者事。高老师本人也是经历了历史的波澜，被历史的车轮碾压过的，但是我却从来没听到过他对任何人或者事的抱怨，他对任何事情和人物都抱有一份温情，对岁月充满了乐观情绪。愿高老师安息！

After working a few years following my Bachelor's degree, I returned to grad school at McGill in 1989 not really sure which aspect of computer science to pursue. Nor did I have any plans beyond a Master's degree. A few lectures into Professor Gao's CS505 Computer Architecture both of those things changed. Gao made things come alive -- both in the small details and the big picture of why those details mattered. That set a pattern for ever after. Always in my work interactions with him, he insisted upon both the intuition behind an approach and formal rigor to establish that the intuition was true. Indeed Gao's intuition-rigor approach has been an excellent paradigm far beyond work.

Gao also mentored me (although at times I must admit, it seemed like torture) and introduced me to the widest set of people, companies, cuisine, and ideas. And Gao's expertise went far beyond his technical work, including not only thorough Chinese history, but broader history including detailed and arcane (to me) knowledge of the Soviet Union. As with our technical collaborations, there was a strong element of intuition and rigor in his approach to understanding human affairs.

Perhaps that intuition-rigor approach coupled with his generosity of spirit helped Gao build his enormous set of collaborations. Gao worked with people with vastly different approaches and interests: from deep theory to engineering large machines, from top-down to bottom-up, from the most combative personalities to the most gentle, from the US to China to India to France to Canada and across the globe. Gao's enormous intellect and energy undoubtedly served those collaborations too. Most would be happy to have had a small fraction of them.

With such vigor until the end, it is hard to believe he is gone. I miss him.