2 CU grad students killed while hiking in China

BOULDER - Two University of Colorado students were in the wrong place at the wrong time when a rockslide hit in China, claiming both their lives.

Jing Yin, 24, of Hefei, China, and Ethan Townsend, 24, of Ashland, Oregon, died last week while hiking on a marked trail in a nature reserve in China's Sichuan Province.

Both were doctoral candidates in physics and described as "brilliant and promising scientists."

Yin received her BS from the University of Science and Technology of China. Townsend attended Stanford University where he earned his BS in Physics and his MS in Mechanical Engineering.

CU physics department chair Paul Beale said, "They were two outstanding young students. It's a terrible loss for the physics department."

Beale says Yin and Townsend had been working in the laser optics group headed by Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn.

"All of their friends are devastated and we've lost two members of our family," he said.

CU's physics department is planning a private memorial on Wednesday and a public one on Friday.