I am very saddened to find out only recently about the sudden passing of my former RA/student Nguyen in a traffic accident in Tuscon, AZ, in Dec 2021. Nguyen was a passionate chemist, smart and dedicated. He had to overcome a lot of adversity to study in Singapore and obtained a First Class Honours from NTU.

He was in the USA to pursue a postgraduate degree and PhD and I was in email contact with him about a month before his fatal accident. I only found out from online news regarding this tragic outcome about 2 years later.

Ngyuen was in my group for a year and learned the ropes of computational chemistry very quickly. Together, we co-authored a paper in which he picked the title adding “Computer Augmented Study” to emphasize the importance of computational studies complementing experimental results. His contributions to this work were immense.

My condolences to his family and may he rest in peace. Sadly, this is my tribute and last recommendation letter to him.