The MMT staff of the masters programme in Trinity College Dublin that Derek attended from 2019-2021 are devastated to hear of Derek’s passing. We extend our deepest sympathies to Derek’s family, friends, work colleagues and classmates. Derek had such an amazing impact on the MMT staff and his fellow class mates. He was an open and avid learner, and had really innovative ideas that he explored in many of his course work assignments. Yet, Derek also was incredibly kind and generous and brought with him to the programme, extensive knowledge and creativity and experience. His presence enriched each classroom and he was open to learning, discussion and supporting his fellow class mates. Derek joined the masters programme as a part-time student in 2019, and from the very beginning was a very valued student. He created many brilliant assignment projects from video, to music to interactive programming and he excelled in every course that he took on the master programme, culminating in an incredibly innovative thesis project that we were all so proud of, that we would like to share with you here. Derek presenting his ideas and his thesis project for the Graduate Exhibition held online in September 2021 can be viewed at the video link. The title of his project: The Phi-harmonic System: Devising a Compositional Approach which Contrasts Maximally Rational and Irrational Numbers in Governing Tuning, Scale and Timbre From MMT (Music and Media Technologies) Staff at Trinity College, Dublin