CHICAGO (AP) – Amadou Cisse was just weeks from receiving his doctorate degree from the University of Chicago in chemistry.

The 29-year-old graduate student and native of Dakar, Senegal, earlier this month had successfully defended his dissertation, a study of how molecules diffuse and migrate through polymers.

But the Bates College graduate’s accomplishments were cut short when he was shot to death early Monday – less than an hour after a university staff member was shot at while walking nearby and two female students were robbed at gunpoint, police said.

The string of violence has put the university on alert, with increased security patrols, community meetings and vigils.

Shortly before 1:30 a.m. Monday, a witness saw a gunman fire a shot at Cisse’s chest before fleeing in a car, police said. The shooting may have been an attempted robbery, although Cisse’s wallet and books were left behind, police said.

The Senegalese Embassy in Washington said he was the son of a deceased military officer and his mother, two brothers and a sister live in Dakar, the nation’s capital.

At Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, Cisse graduated in 2001 with degrees in chemistry, physics and mathematics, said college friend Ken Chiang, who has known him for a decade.

He was remembered at as a brilliant student and a very nice person.

“Amadou understood that he had been given an opportunity that many in Senegal, in Africa, do not have,” Czerny Brasulle, director of multicultural affairs at Bates, told The Chicago Tribune. “The taking of his life has resulted in the absence of someone who would have made a difference in the world.”

At the University of Chicago, Cisse was a teaching assistant for general chemistry classes. He was to receive his diploma Dec. 7, but now the university says it will award the degree posthumously.

“He was a diligent researcher and very committed to his science and colleagues,” Cisse’s faculty adviser, professor Steven Sibener, said in a release issued by the university. “He was incredibly happy last week. He smiled ear-to-ear and just sat back and enjoyed his accomplishment.”

Cisse was killed near a campus that is in the upscale Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago but borders impoverished parts of the city’s South Side. The campus is patrolled by both Chicago police officers and a force of, according to the school, more than 140 state-certified university police officers who have full police powers.

But the areas around campus have some students limiting where they travel, said Sarah Jackman, 21, a religious studies major from Galena, Ill.

“There is a nucleus of the campus and you’re not supposed to go outside it,” Jackman said as she walked to class on Tuesday. “A lot of students will perpetuate this image that you’re not supposed to go outside the university zone.”

Justin Hartmann, 20, a sophomore English major from Atlanta, said he got the idea that he shouldn’t go past certain streets into some neighborhoods. He said students have a reputation for not leaving their dorms.

“I’ve never felt unsafe in Hyde Park,” he said. “It’s no better or worse than any other neighborhood in Chicago. The university does all it can do to make us safe. The university does a lot to protect us.”

Meghan White, 19, a sophomore from Oakland, Calif., said she doesn’t think the recent violence is a question of neighborhood boundaries.

“It’s really sad that this had to happen, but I don’t think it speaks to how safe you are here,” White said. “It speaks to how safe you are in an urban environment in the present world.”

Since the violence, University President Robert Zimmer said in a letter to students that the school would indefinitely increase the number of car patrols after 4 p.m. and add more officers on bicycles. School officials also said they would step up the SafeRide program, which provides late-night transportation for faculty, staff and students, and the school also is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the shooting.

Chicago police also were to increase patrols in the area. Police on Tuesday issued a community alert for a light gray or white sedan with red or orange driver’s side doors that may have been involved in the Hyde Park crimes.

Meanwhile, Natalia Estrada, 22, a senior anthropology major from Downey, Calif., said she feels safe because she often sees patrol cars on campus and she watches herself and her surroundings when she’s walking alone.

“You go into Chicago, you kind of know it’s not going to be the safest,” Estrada said. “This is the risk you take when you’re attending this area. You just have to use common sense.”

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