Joanna Li ’12 Remembered for Grace, Kindness, and Curiosity

When Peter D. Davis ’12 found a Cambridge Public Library book at his front door, wrapped in a bow, he knew who might have left it: Joanna Y. Li ’12.

Davis said that he had been going through a difficult time, and his friend had hoped to cheer him up with a quirky gift—a library book about a topic that interested him.

“She was deeply empathetic in a real way,” he said.

Li, a Kirkland House resident and neurobiology concentrator who had been on leave from the College since last spring semester, died in her Somerville apartment on May 7. She was 22. In an email to the Harvard community last Thursday morning, Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds wrote that Li had lived off-campus since first taking time off from Harvard in February 2012. Hammonds wrote that medical examiners have not yet determined the cause of Li’s death, but that they do not believe foul play was involved.

Classmates and advisers remembered Li as a kind and discerning friend who often went out of her way to help out those around her with a well-timed gift, a meaningful conversation, or a ukulele serenade. Li applied her characteristic thoughtfulness to all aspects of her life, excelling in a number of academic fields and extracurricular activities while consistently downplaying her own accomplishments, they said.

Richard J. Sima ’12, who dated Li for approximately two-and-a-half years after the two met at the beginning of their freshman year, said that when one of his friends took a leave of absence during their junior year, Li found a unique way to cheer him up—she decided to cut out a picture of the missing friend’s face, paste it to a pillow, and snap photos of the dummy “hanging out” with his friends.

“She was the kindest, most compassionate, most thoughtful person I knew,” Sima said.

Friends said that Li’s interest in other people carried over into everyday life as well.

Amy Guan ’12, a former Crimson news editor who shared summer housing with Li after their freshman and junior years, said that Li could have “long conversations about other people’s problems” without seeming overbearing or judgmental.

“I remember how great of a conversationalist she was,” Davis said. “If you were excited about something, she always had a new fact about it.”

Many acquaintances remarked on Li’s broad interests and general curiosity, which led her into a number of fields and activities during her seven semesters at Harvard.

In her freshman year, she took home a prize for a paper she wrote in her Expository Writing course—an essay that some students currently enrolled in the class are now assigned to read as a model of good writing.

“I always told her she should be a writer,” said Sima, who recalled Li’s interest in philosophy and poetry.

In the classroom, Li incorporated her varied interests into her primary field of study of neuroscience, often dabbling in bioethics and computer science.

“Those areas are difficult to integrate and very few students even attempt it,” said Ryan W. Draft, assistant director of undergraduate studies for the neurobiology concentration. “It was a promising academic trajectory.”

Draft said that Li often went out of her way to help out fellow students by attending advising events and serving as a teaching fellow in the courses Molecular and Cellular Biology 80 and Computer Science 50. She also worked for Harvard Brain, an on-campus neuroscience journal.

“She had a pretty big presence in the concentration when she was on campus,” he said. “I felt like our relationship with her was a little bit more substantial than it is with most students.”

Other friends remembered that Li, who volunteered at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter and worked with the Elizabeth Warren campaign, cared deeply about social problems.

“She didn’t just care on paper; she cared with her whole heart on these issues,” said Davis.

And in each of these pursuits, friends said, Li exhibited grace and humility without fail.

“She was never showy with all her talents and she probably didn’t give herself as much credit as anyone else who knew her would,” Sima said.

Guan said that Li often checked up on friends, generally steering the conversation away from her own successes or struggles.

“I really think she underestimated herself,” Guan said. “I just really hope she was able to realize how much people loved her.”

—Staff writer Jared T. Lucky can be reached at lucky@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @jared_lucky.