Who is Zijie Yan? Reports identify staffer killed in UNC Chapel Hill shooting

Multiple reports, including Fox News, have identified UNC Associate Professor Zijie Yan as the faculty member who was killed on August 28 after a shooting at the school's science building at Chapel Hill.

While authorities have yet to confirm the identity of the victim, his name was disclosed on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, by multiple credible news websites.

On Monday, August 28, authorities said that the UNC campus went into lockdown after shots were fired around 1:02 pm at the school’s Caudill Laboratories. Police said the shooter, identified as Tailei Qi, a research student from Wuhan, killed a faculty member in a science building at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The shooting rattled the campus as authorities searched and apprehended the suspect.

While authorities did not immediately name the victim, Fox News identified him as Zijie Yan, an Associate Professor who was listed as an advisor to the suspect since January 2022.

The suspect, who has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Wuhan University and a master’s degree in material science and engineering from Louisiana State University, has been a member of Professor Zijie Yan’s research group at UNC since last year. Authorities are still exploring the circumstances that led to the shooting, and the motive is yet to be established.

Earlier this month, in a post on X, the suspect, a second-year Ph.D. student at the school, said that he was seeking to make friends at the UNC campus. The tweet read:

"would like to make some new friends. I am a second-year PhD student, interested in nanoparticle synthesis, optical trapping, self-assembly, spectra analysis, and ML. a bit stupid in daily trifles, very enthusiastic talking about research. Reach me if interest."

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What we know about UNC staffer Zijie Yan, who was killed in the Chapel Hill shooting

On Monday afternoon, a shooter identified as a graduate student killed a faculty member, Zijie Yan, in a science building at the University of North Carolina. The shooting prompted a lockdown that paralyzed the campus as authorities searched for the suspect, who was apprehended three hours after shots were fired.

While the motive for the shooting remained nebulous, it was reported by Fox News that the victim, Zijie Yan, was listed as an adviser to the suspect, who had been part of his research group since January 2022. However, it should be noted that the university and authorities have not confirmed the name of the victim as they await to notify the next of kin.

Per his LinkedIn profile, Zijie Yan had been employed as an associate professor at UNC for four years. He was interested in researching Optical Trapping and Manipulation, Holography, Microfluidics, and Electronic and Photonics Nanomaterials.

Yan graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a dual B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, Computer Science degree in 2005 and obtained a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2011. Before UNC, he was listed as an Associate professor at Clarkson University.

Reacting to the tragedy, University official Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, who did not immediately identify the staffer who was killed, said:

“This loss is devastating, and the shooting damages the trust and safety that we so often take for granted in our campus community.”

As authorities continue to investigate the case, university officials said that classes and campus activities would be canceled on Monday and Tuesday.