Zirui Deng, after bravely battling lung cancer for two whole years, left this world he deeply loved on March 10, 2021 in Issaquah, Washington, at age 35.

Zirui was born on July 4, 1985 in Changsha, China. He graduated from Yali High School, then received a bachelor’s degree from Beijing Normal University and a master’s degree from Peking University, both in Computer Science. Starting from middle school through college, Zirui participated in many programming contests and won a number of awards. He had always been a talented student in both academics and sports.

Zirui’s entire career was at Microsoft where he was a software engineer. He first started in Microsoft China in Beijing in 2010 and moved to the Greater Seattle area in 2015 where he joined the company’s headquarters in Redmond. As a developer, he worked in many different areas, from databases to search engines. In his last few years, he was dedicated to machine learning not only as his career but also as a personal interest.

Zirui lived a passionate life as a son, a husband, and a friend. His genuineness and brilliance warmed and inspired everyone who was around him. He married Cong Niu on September 3, 2018 in Seattle, Washington. Throughout his life, he enjoyed snowboarding, photography, dancing and anime. He also loved petting his two cats, Kuta and Momoko, who were adopted by him and his wife.

Zirui, Hecame Helived Heloved.