Åke W. Sjöberg (August 1, 1924 – August 8, 2014) was a leading Assyriologist, specialized in Sumerian language and literature. Biography Early years Åke Waldemar Sjöberg, Emeritus Clark Research Professor of Assyriology and Emeritus Curator of the Tablet Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, was born in Sala in the province of Västmanland, Sweden, on August 1, 1924 to his parents, postmaster Bernhard Waldemar Sjöberg and Mary Ingeborg Zetterberg. After elementary schooling in Sala, he was able to pursue an education at Fjellstedt School, a renowned boarding school in Uppsala. The curriculum there had a heavy emphasis on the study of languages, including Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In 1946 he enrolled at Uppsala University to study Semitic Languages under Professor H. S. Nyberg. He also followed courses in the History of Religion, Ethnography and Assyriology. In 1953, Sjöberg married his wife Gunnil (née Kronborg). Sjöberg's interest in the cuneiform cultures of the ancient Near East, and especially the languages of Akkadian and Sumerian led him to spend eight semesters between 1953 and 1959 in Heidelberg, where he studied under Adam Falkenstein. In 1960 Sjöberg successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the Sumerian moon-god Nanna-Suen in Sumerian sources. Professional career in the United States A few years after his doctoral defense, he was invited to the University of Chicago, where, in January 1963, he joined the staff at the Oriental Institute, assisting in compiling the Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD). After having spent three years in Chicago, he moved on to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1966, where he mainly taught Akkadian classes. Two years later he succeeded Samuel Noah Kramer as Clark Research Professor in Assyriology, taking over the post as Curator of the Tablet Collections of the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, working alongside his colleagues Barry Eichler and Erle Leichty. Together with Erle Leichty, Sjöberg managed to secure funding for a dictionary of the Sumerian Language, The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (PSD). The dictionary project was based on Sjöberg's extensive collection of file cards containing lexicographic information on Sumerian words and expressions, on which he had been working since his days as a student. The main work on the project began in 1976. The main sponsor was the National Endowment for the Humanities, but contributions also came from other institutions and individuals. Between