Tributes paid to US climate scientist killed on Ethiopia trip
Sharon Gray, 31, was a leader in the study of how climate change affects plants, said Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar, chairman of Ms Gray’s plant biology department at the University of California, Davis.
He said: “She’s really an always-smiling slip of sunshine. She’s a smart, energetic scientist. She had a very bright future ahead of her. And everyone knew she was going to be the star in the plant biology research area.”
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Hide AdMs Gray, a post-doctoral researcher, was in the East African country for a meeting to kick off a research project when she was killed on Tuesday. She was travelling in a car in the outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa, an area that has seen months of deadly protests.
A family statement said Ms Gray was “such a bright human being.”
“Sharon was a passionate scientist, friend, spouse, sister, daughter, aunt, godmother, and a colleague.
“We are picking each other up and growing together in her absence.”
The family has started a fundraising webpage aimed at mentoring young women in science in her name.
Ms Gray is the first foreigner killed in the massive anti-government protests that have claimed the lives of hundreds of demonstrators since November 2015.
At least 55 people were killed in a stampede last weekend when police tried to disrupt a demonstration amid a massive religious festival that has been followed by clashes between security forces and protesters.
The details of the attack that killed Ms Gray are still unclear, Mr Dinesh-Kumar said. Another UC Davis professor who was in Ethiopia was shaken but not hurt and is returning home, he said.
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Hide AdThe US Embassy attributed the death to head injuries from a rock thrown by “unknown individuals”.
Ms Gray earned her doctorate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2013 before moving to UC Davis with her husband, who is also a post-doctoral researcher. She was awarded a three-year National Science Foundation grant to study how growing levels of carbon dioxide affect plants.