KU assistant chemistry professor dies

Julian Limburg, assistant professor of chemistry at Kansas University, died Thursday at his home in Lawrence. He was 36.

Limburg joined KU in 2004 after earning his master’s and doctoral degrees at Yale University and serving as a visiting post-doctoral scholar at the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California-San Francisco.

Chancellor Robert Hemenway said in a statement that the university was mourning the loss of such a young professor.

“The university community today mourns the profound loss of a young and engaging scholar and educator,” Hemenway said. “I offer our deepest condolences to Professor Limburg’s wife, family and friends.”

Professor Joseph Heppert, chairman of the chemistry department, said the department would miss Limburg’s “wit and his enthusiasm for research in the chemical sciences.”