On June 21, 2021, Prof Dr. Sabine Gruber passed away after a long illness.

Sabine Gruber dedicated her research to both traditional and new crop species - lentil cultivation Germany, and the Swabian Alb in particular, owes much to her work. She supervised numerous Master’s and Bachelor’s theses as well as a dissertation on this topic. Of her almost 80 publications, ten dealt with lentil farming in Germany. Despite her serious illness, she continued to supervise students and doctoral candidates, inspiring students with her enthusiasm for science, plant cultivation and especially lentils. We will miss the joint project meetings and field days, where together we enjoyed technical discussions, lentil tasting and brainstorming about future research.

Sabine Gruber really enjoyed discussions with the lentil farmers – she always returned with a treasure-trove of new ideas from every site visit and meeting with the 'Albleisa' producer group. In addition to her scientific publications, Sabine Gruber also published numerous articles in practical journals and gave interviews to promote the re-introduction of lentils back to our fields – engaging with the public was particularly important to her, as her research was never confined to the ivory tower.

As project partners, we have known Sabine as an inspiring, creative and honest colleague. Even in her final weeks and months she gave us many suggestions and approaches for LinSel that we will continue to work on together. We will sorely miss Sabine Gruber, her strength, her energy and her passion for research.