Slaying victim's optimism recalled

DURHAM -- Abhijit Mahato may have been a rare and valuable talent, a scientist of extraordinary intellect and curiosity.

But mostly, his friends will remember his goofy smile.

His friends loved that toothy, perpetual grin. It summed up Mahato perfectly -- the sunny optimist with nary a care.

These recollections came through Friday during a somber memorial at a Duke University lecture hall. Mahato, 29, a native of Bengal -- a state in eastern India -- was gunned down last week in his off-campus apartment. Police have arrested Stephen Lavance Oates Jr., 19, a Durham teenager thought to have killed Mahato during a robbery spree.

Mahato had been in Durham less than two years, arriving in 2006 to do doctoral work in engineering. But his cheery disposition and caring nature quickly made an impact, both on the local Indian community and on his engineering colleagues, two groups that became his surrogate families.

Tod Laursen was Mahato's doctorate adviser. He was among Mahato's first contacts at Duke. Before the budding scientist decided on Duke, it was Laursen who tried to sell him on the university. The fact that his sales pitch was ultimately successful is now proving difficult to deal with, Laursen said Friday.

"It's kind of an interesting combination of gratitude and pain," he said.

At Duke, Laursen and Mahato teamed up with Michelin, the tire company, to develop software that would make tires safer and longer-lasting, Laursen said. That work, he added, should give people some solace.

"It's comforting to know the contributions he made will positively affect people," Laursen said.

Sujatha Jagannathan met Mahato when they both arrived at Duke to do graduate work. The duo used to talk about books and movies a lot, and Jagannathan was among those baffled by the ease with which Mahato embraced his work. Completing an engineering doctorate, after all, takes a lot of work, but it never seemed to bother him.

"We always used to wonder: 'How does he smile all the time?' " she said.