An Asian American psychology professor at the University of Southern California was killed in a stabbing Friday. One of his graduate students is in custody as a suspect, authorities said.
Bosco S. Tjan — a Chinese American immigrant known for his expertise in perception, vision and vision cognition — was found dead inside the Seeley G. Mudd building where his office was located. He was 50, was married with a child.
Authorities suspect Tjan was deliberately stabbed by the student over a personal dispute, USA Today reported.
“As the Trojan Family mourns Professor Tjan’s untimely passing, we will keep his family in our thoughts,” University President C.L Max Nikias said in a statement. “Our Department of Public Safety officers responded immediately, and apprehended the suspect on the scene.”
Tjan was born in Beijing and moved to the United States from Taiwan as a teenager. He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in computer science in 1987 and his Ph.D in computer and information science in 1997.
He joined USC in 2001 as a research assistant before becoming an associate professor in 2008 and a full-time professor in 2015.
Tjan was known for prolific and groundbreaking research in vision loss caused by macular degeneration and other conditions. According to the USC website, his research objective was to examine the “human visual system to address basic and translational questions pertaining to vision loss, restoration, and rehabilitation.”
“We’ve really lost an incredible mind and extremely generous person,” Irving Biederman, Howard Dornsife professor of neuroscience and director of the Image Understanding Laboratory, told USC News. “You could not ask for a better colleague. He was brilliant, knowledgeable and helpful to others.”
USC held a special prayer and reflection service Monday in remembrance of Tjan at the Tommy Trojan statue.
