Grad Student Dies in Apparent Suicide

A second-year biophysics graduate student died earlier this month in his Somerville apartment, in an apparent suicide.

Ulrik Pezzeca was found dead on January 2 "under circumstances indicating that he took his own life," according to a letter circulated last week to professors in the biophysics program by Don C. Wiley, the program's chairman.

Pezzeca was "a successful and promising graduate student," Wiley stated.

Personal Factors

His research supervisor, Richards Professor of Chemistry Martin Karplus, said yesterday the student had just finished "a very interesting study" on the properties of proteins. "He was doing very well," Karplus said.

Aside from Wiley's letter, Pezzeca's death was apparently not publicized, and many students and professors said yesterday they were not familiar with details of the incident.

Administrators in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) emphasized that they believed the apparent suicide was attributable to personal factors and did not reflect upon the school's atmosphere.

'Dedicated People'

"Every institution of higher education tends to have such incidents periodically," said Jeremy W. Rusk, the school's associate dean for administration. "I don't see it as part of a major problem."

"We have a lot of dedicated people trying to make life better for graduate students," said GSAS Dean Edward L. Keenan Jr. '57. "I don't thing it is something that happened to cause of external circumstances."

The biophysics program in particular "has had over the years superb students and an excellent esprit de corps," said Paul C. Martin '52, dean of the divisions of Applied Sciences.

Student Criticism

But some students complained yesterday of more pervasive alienation and loneliness in the graduate school, which has more than 2000 students enrolled in several dozen separate higher degree programs.

"There's no community," said second-year biochemistry student Jacques J. Distler '82. "A large part of your waking hours are spent with the same people."

Last spring 300 GSAS students petitioned the University to centralize the school's administrative offices in a single location along with a lounge, cafe and word processing center. This fall a new lounge for GSAS students opened in Lehman Hall, near a cafeteria frequented by graduate students.

According to Wiley's letter, Pezzeca had changed his last name from Grandjen. Biophysics Professor Arthur K. Solomon said Pezzeca had interrupted his graduate studies to serve several years in the armed services.