When a 24-year-old graduate student was arrested for stabbing to death a Georgetown law student last week, it shocked one of the University's smallest programs.
Rahul Gupta, who has been accused of second-degree murder, was also a top student. He won one of GWs most prestigious research prizes as an undergraduate and worked in a bioengineering lab for nanomedicine and tissue engineering.
He began pursuing his master's in biomedical engineering this fall, after earning his bachelor's degree in engineering from GW in 2012.
Gupta was arrested Sunday, Oct. 13 for allegedly killing Georgetown law student Mark Waugh his high school friend because he thought his girlfriend and Waugh were involved romantically behind his back. The group had gone out in D.C. to celebrate Gupta's 24th birthday Saturday night.
Murray Loew, director of the biomedical engineering program, said he has felt a reaction of "sadness and shock" among faculty, but has heard little from students.
The program has four full-time faculty members and about 50 masters and Ph.D. students.
Gupta's girlfriend who was present at the time of the stabbing, according to police documents was also enrolled in the undergraduate program, which had 165 students the year they both graduated. One other alumnus had attended birthday celebrations with the group, but had not returned to the couple's Silver Spring apartment that night.
Its always distressing and unhappy when one of our students has had a big problem, Loew said about the allegations against Gupta.
He said he expects faculty and students will discuss the incident during a regularly scheduled meeting in two weeks.
The only thing I can say is we have great pride and interest in our students and in our graduates, and we always want the best of success for them, and when something like this happens, of course its very upsetting, Loew said.
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With star student accused of murder, engineering program feels 'sadness and shock'