On Friday, a University of Southern California professor was fatally stabbed by a student. Details surrounding the stabbing are still vague, but The Washington Post reported authorities believe the fight stemmed from a “personal dispute.”
USC officials have not released details about the student in the stabbing but did identify the professor as Bosco Tjan, a psychology professor who concentrated on age-related ailments. He had been teaching at the university since 2001 and was the co-director of USC’s Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center.
USC’s Department of Public Safety was able to apprehend the subject shortly after the stabbing and urged the university and community they were not in danger as “This was not a random act of violence…The Los Angeles Police Department believes this was the result of ‘personal dispute.'” Chris Purington, a project manager at Tjan’s lab, said the professor will be missed:
“He was somebody who really cared about people. I know he cared about me. He mentored people and he looked out for them. He spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to be a mentor and guide people. …People talk about scientists as very cold or robotic. Bosco is a guy that he could talk to anybody about anything.”
Tjan’s death comes a year after USC graduate student Xinran Ji was beaten to death after a study session and the 2012 shooting deaths of Chinese graduate students Ming Qu and Ying Wu.
(Via The Washington Post)