I first met Jiaqi in the fall of 2013, when he showed interests to participate in an academic research of mine, although he was not a student in my own department. We had many discussions in the following winter. He helped not only on setting up and running the experiment, but also on sharing his insightful idea. His honesty, enthusiasm and responsibility touched me deeply and we soon became friend-like advisor and student. I really enjoyed the time when Jiaqi and several of his friends worked together with me, when we stuck in the lab, when we hung out for dinner, when we skied for their first time.
The research Jiaqi had participated in was finally published on the 2015 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, the most important international conference in the research field of transportation and was held in Washington D.C. in every January. Jiaqi was authored as the second of the paper (the first among students). He showed great happiness when the paper was accepted. Another paper based on his research is under working; unfortunately, he's unable to see its publication this time. I had drawn a splendid future of Jiaqi since he was such an excellent student. What I never expected is that a young life can leave us as soon as this. Now I'm going to have a baby of my own. I can't imagine how much sufferings his parents have been experiencing from losing him. The last time I saw Jiaqi was in October 2014, when he came back to Beijing for China Open during the golden week. We happened to meet each other on his way to Zhichunlu subway station. He said he was heading to the railway station for coming back to Shanghai. We had a short talk and blessed each other. I never thought it could be the last time for me to see his happy smelling face, which I would like to remember forever.
R.I.P., Jiaqi.