BOULDER, Colo.—
Two 24-year-old University of Colorado graduate students described by their professors as rising stars in the world of Physics are dead.Jing Yin and Ethan Townsend were crushed in a rock slide while touring China.
Details of what happened are still sketchy. But the rock slide happened late last week on a marked trail in a Chinese National Forest.
Word reached CU via e-mail on Friday and no one was more devastated than the husband wife professor team that served as PhD. advisors for the two students.
"They could have done great things," Prof. Henry Kapteyn said. "It was clear they had just tremendous potential."
Townsend was developing an X-ray microscope for use in nano-technology. Yin researched the behavior of atoms and molecules on specific surfaces. She had already published two major papers and was heading to an international conference in Germany when the accident happened.
The pair was also known for their work outside the class room, on the CU campus. Townsend mentored high school students, and Yin was the president of the Chinese Students Association.
"They were very gifted academically, but they were really wonderful people," Prof. Margaret Murnane said. "There's no doubt that they would have been leaders scientific leaders, their scientific skills, their people skills, were excellent. So we are very proud of them and very saddened to lose them."
