Wreath Placed in Pratt to Honor Mahato
Item spent one week in state capitol
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
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Durham, NC -- Duke University this week received a wreath presented in memory of Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student Eve Carson by Ellen Edwards.
Edwards placed the wreath in the North Carolina Capitol Rotunda, where it sat in honor of the two students for a week, before it was moved to Fitzpatrick CIEMAS building. It will sit here in the halls where Abhijit studied for one week so that his classmates and friends may spend time remembering him here.
Abhijit Mahato, 29, was a native of India. He was studying for a doctoral degree in computational mechanics at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and was a second year graduate student planning to take his qualifying exams.
Before coming to Duke, Abhijit earned his mechanical engineering degree from Jadavpur University in 2001 and a master of technology degree from the Indian Institute for Technology in Kanpur in 2004. He also worked for two years for the GE Global Research Center in Bangalore, where he focused on finite element analysis, a computer-simulation technique used in engineering.
In Durham, the doctoral student built a circle of friends who remember him as studious, compassionate, an avid reader, a film buff and a talented cook of Bengali sweets. He always wore a big smile that brightened up the day of those around him. His professors and advisers saw great promise and a rare and valuable talent in the young scientist.
Duke President Richard H. Brodhead recently announced the school has established a fellowship in memory of Abhijit. The Abhijit Mahato Memorial Fellowship will provide financial support to a Duke international graduate student who is studying engineering, with preference given to a student from Abhijit’s native country of India.
