Yajie Miao (the author of Eesen and many other exciting works) defended his thesis in August 2016 - an exciting moment, and well deserved.

It is my sad duty to inform you of the death of Yajie Miao, our former student. Not many details are known yet, but we were informed last week that he had been in an accident about two weeks ago. After defending his PhD at CMU in August, he went back to China to see his family and arrange for US visa for his wife and himself. He was supposed to start his position with Microsoft in Seattle today. His death at this time is a grave and tragic loss, first and foremost to his wife and family, but also to the speech community, and to everyone who knew him.

I am sure you will all still remember Yajie as fondly as I do. He was an exceptional friend and colleague, who impressed not just with what he did, but especially with how he did it. With his kind nature, he was always ready to help and had immediately endeared him to anybody who knew him; any minute spent with Yajie was a minute spent with a “real Mensch”. I can only imagine that his family and friends must have adored him for those same qualities, and miss his relaxed personality and self-confident friendliness. I missed chatting and discussing with him easily during the last few weeks, but I find it almost impossible to accept that his friends and family got to meet him as a married PhD for just a few short days.

I am at a loss of words. We are in contact with Yajie’s family and will reach out to them, together with Microsoft. Let me conclude by reminding us all to cherish life and our loved ones above all else.

If you want to remember Yajie, you can donate to the INTERSPEECH Yajie Miao travel grant at Youcaring.