Dayaneetha De Silva, who passed away prematurely in June 2024, was the copyeditor of JSEAS for 13 years. The readability of every article and book review published from volume 43 (2012) up to most of the present issue owes a great deal to Dayaneetha's expert skills in perfecting the often-opaque prose of academics without hurting their notorious sensitivity. Her professional abilities, however, far exceeded copy-editing. Dayaneetha knew Southeast Asia first-hand because the region was inscribed in her biography. Born in Malaysia of parents who had come from Sri Lanka, she graduated from the National University of Singapore with a major in English literature, and later obtained a master's degree in Southeast Asian studies from The Australian National University. She started her activity as a copyeditor for a journal edited by the noted ANU economist, Heinz W. Arndt. Upon moving back to Singapore, she worked for the Elsevier publishing company, the publication unit of ISEAS, and then, as a freelance, NIAS and Silkworm Books, among others. Dayaneetha became copyeditor of JSEAS at the time when we took stock of the journal to address the changing geography and demographics of an area studies field that had begun its ‘coming home’ thanks to a new generation of Southeast Asian scholars based in the region. Dayaneetha contributed significantly to the project of making JSEAS increasingly a publication outlet for these scholars. She will be fondly remembered by all those who had the good fortune of working with her and appreciating her professionalism, knowledge, patience, and gentleness.

Thank you, Dayan. Rest in peace.