Denver Police Department (DPD) has confirmed the identity of 24-year-old Masoud Bahramisharif, a DU Ph.D. student studying electrical engineering, who was killed last night in a hit-and-run accident at the corner of University Boulevard and Evans Avenue.
According to a coroner’s report released to ABC 7 News, Bahramisharif was pronounced dead at Denver Health at 2:02 a.m. last night.
In addition to his studies, Bahramisharif was a research assistant who worked at the Image Processing and Computer Vision Laboratory of the Clarence M. Knudson Hall engineering building.
Jun Zhang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, was on his qualify exam committee at the school of engineering and computer science.
“I was on his committee, so I mostly knew him for academic purposes,” said Zhang. “He [Bahramisharif] was definitely very intelligent, one of our best and smartest graduate students, so I am very sad about this.”
Flyers posted Knudson Hall in describe Bahramisharif as “our friend and colleague in the engineering school,” asking that students “help bring justice by finding the driver who ran off. ”
According to his personal website, http://mysite.du.edu/~mbahrami/, Bahramisharif was born in 1987 in Hamedan, Iran, and got his B.Sc degree in the field of Computer Science from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. Bahramisharif also writes that he had “some gold medals in my sport activities; I am semipro in basketball. ”
There will be a grief counseling session from 3-4:30 p.m. today for international students at the International House (I-House), according to Kim DeVigil, Senior Director of University Communications, and Mary Boevers, Director of International Student and Scholar Services at the I-house.
According to an email to be released to the international student community this afternoon, students who need immediate counseling are encouraged to go to the Health and Counseling Center (HCC), located at 2240 E. Buchtel Blvd., Suite 3 N in the Ritchie Center on the north side of campus. Their telephone number is 303-871-2205.
DPD is still in pursuit of the driver of the maroon Jeep Grand Cherokee involved in the accident. The DPD Traffic Investigations Bureau issued a reward of $2000 for anonymous tips that lead to the arrest and charging of a wanted individual, according to flyers posted in Knudson Hall.
Anyone with information that could help locate the driver is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or DPD Traffic Investigations Bureau at 720-337-1000.
