In memoriam: Ayan Bhattacharjee

We remember, with great sadness, our student Ayan Bhattacharjee, who passed away on April 24 2022, at the age of 21.

Ayan was a second-year student in Chemistry. He began his studies at the University of Groningen in September 2020 as a very motivated and enthusiastic student, full of dreams and plans about Chemistry.

Ayan was already interested in Chemistry from an early age and he had built his own laboratory back home in Bangalore, India. He was very excited to start the bachelor programme in Chemistry at the University of Groningen. The online setting due to Covid-19 rules did not deter him from coming and in some ways proved to have positive aspects for him.

His fellow students remember that Ayan showed most interest of all the chemistry students in his year. Normally, a student will pick one field of chemistry to further specialize in but Ayan’s vision was as broad as the horizon which could comprehend all fields in chemistry. Nevertheless, Organic Chemistry was his favorite subject during high school and he enjoyed this subject in our programme the most; he did very well in the Organic Chemistry 1 course.

In his second year Ayan struggled with his mental health and despite professional help, he did not get back on track again. His life ended unfortunately on the 24th of April in Groningen city centre.

Ayan enjoyed his life in Groningen, his fellow-students and all the people around him. We are deeply saddened that his Chemistry dreams will now never be fulfilled.

Our condolences go to Ayan’s family and friends in India and Europe, to his friends in the Netherlands, and his close friends in the Chemistry programme. We wish everyone fortitude in coming to terms with the loss of our student and friend, Ayan.

Prof. dr. W.R. Wesley Browne, programme director Chemistry
Geartsje Zondervan, MSc, academic advisor Chemistry
Ali Arici, Ewout Sjoerdstra, Jiwon Park, Andrej Kovac, Mika van der Meer and
all second-year Chemistry students of cohort 2021-2022
The Board of the Faculty of Science and Engineering