It has been an incredibly painful, shocking, tragic week because of the horrific event that took place last Saturday at Brown University, in Providence, RI, resulting in the loss of lives of two young Brown undergraduates, and the shooting of 9 other students, and then, this past Monday, with the killing of an MIT physics professor in Brookline, MA. I am writing this post with tears streaming. 6 students remain hospitalized at RI Hospital and 3 have been released.
This week has been a nightmare. My husband and I are Brown University alums and we spent years of our lives there with offices in the building Barus & Holley (B&H), where our respective PhD advisors also had their offices. I had classes in the classroom in B&H where the shooting took place during the economics review session last Saturday. My husband received his PhD in physics from Brown. I also spent two years at MIT as a Visiting Scholar and Visiting Associate Professor, the former through an NSF VPW. So many memories and images have been flooding back. We have been following the news relentlessly and contacting and hearing from classmates, friends, colleagues, and even relatives in the area.
I proctored a final exam this past Tuesday at the Isenberg School of Management and have been busy grading my Transportation & Logistics class during a surreal, dystopian week. Feeling blessed to have such wonderful students.
The perpetrator was identified and found with a self-inflicted wound in a storage facility in NH last night. He was a former grad student in physics at Brown over two decades ago and, it seems, he never received a degree. He was a classmate in Portugal of the MIT Professor, a young Father with 3 children, who lost his life.
Be kind to one another since so many are hurting at the senseless loss of lives and so much suffering during what should be a celebratory holiday season.
We need to be aware and to support one another as we mourn and memorialize.
I am grateful to my students and to those who have reached out. I continue to reach out to colleagues and friends affected by the atrocious acts and pray for the victims and their families and friends.
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