Constance Holden, courtesy AAAS

The Metropolitan Police Department has identified the cyclist who was struck and killed in a collision with a D.C. National Guard truck at 12th Street and New York Ave. NW Monday evening. Constance Holden, 68, was officially pronounced dead on the scene and later transported to the D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office.

Holden was a science reporter for the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s journal Science. The AAAS has since released a statement expressing “shock and deep sadness at the tragic loss of the gifted science journalist and artist.”

Holden, 68, a veteran journalist and painter affectionately known to friends and colleagues as “Tancy,” apparently had just left the AAAS headquarters building on her bicycle around 6:00 p.m. Monday, 12 April when she was struck and killed by a truck providing support for the Nuclear Security Summit taking place in downtown Washington, D.C.

Holden had joined the staff of Science magazine in 1970. She was an award-winning reporter, highly regarded for her comprehensive coverage of the biological and genetic bases for human behavior. In addition to writing news features for four decades about social science, and particularly psychology, she had long edited the journal’s weekly “Random Samples” page, a compendium of newsworthy scientific developments. …

Holden was a highly accomplished artist whose oil paintings have regularly appeared on the walls of AAAS.

Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of AAAS and executive publisher of Science informed staff early Tuesday, noting that Holden “was held in very high esteem and with great affection by both those people with whom she worked and our readers. This is a terrible loss both personally and professionally for so many on our staff who knew her well.”

Colin Norman, news editor for Science, said: “She was a unique personality and a wonderful reporter, and a great colleague. She will be deeply missed.”

Holden is survived by her husband, John Butters of D.C.