CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — About 5,000 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students gathered Wednesday night at the Dean Smith Center to pay their respects to the professor shot and killed this week on campus.
Zijie Yan was an associate professor in UNC’s Department of Applied Physical Sciences, where he focused on nanoscience technology and was studying how it can be used to improve drug delivery to human cells. Yan died in Monday’s shooting.
“[He was] a man devoted to expanding our knowledge about the world,” said Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz.
UNC students are set to go back to classes on Thursday.
“Now comes the challenge, we must find a way to move forward while never forgetting the loss that we have felt this week, but how?” Guskiewicz said. “How do we move forward when our lives feel so fragile and out of control?
“The answer to that question comes from our community. It comes from the countless acts of kindness and bravery that we have witnessed.”
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