犹他大学近年发生多次校内死亡事件。2003年附近希尔空军基地一人员在大学室内游泳池溺毙，在场救生员没能救起他。2004年一男子倒闭图书馆厕所内，直到早上开馆才发现。本月十九号一来自中国的女教授从一辆在行驶中的校车上从后门甩出，稍后在大学附属医院去世。
谢东方教授（ZHILONG DIANE XIE)来自哈尔滨，曾是中国奥数参赛选手，在中国科学院取得本科学位。1988年留学美国哈弗大学化学系，师从一诺贝尔奖得主取得博士学位。在哈弗期间兼任中国学生会主席。
毕业后去宾州DREXEL大学博士后。而后在佛吉尼亚大学任TENUE-TRACK助理教授，后来犹他大学化学系及材料环境系任研究教授。共发表了二十多篇高质量的科研文章，从事项目带头人工作近十年左右。
谢教授乐于助人，经常参加社区及教会活动。乐于同年轻人分享人生经验，鼓励年轻人克服困难，乐观处事。
原文如下：
In more than 30 years of police work, Scott Folsom has seen few people leave as faint a personal footprint on the world as Zhilong Xie.
After the 63-year-old former University of Utah research professor fell out of a moving shuttle bus Thursday and died, it fell to campus Police Chief Folsom's department to notify her next of kin.
Salt Lake City police are sharing Zhilong Diane Xie's driver license photo to find anyone who may have known her. Xie died after falling out of a University of Utah shuttle bus.
Except they couldn't find anyone who really knew the woman.
Not family. Not friends. Not co-workers. Not neighbors. In fact, the only calls to Xie's cell phone came from telemarketers.
"Usually people leave a trail of their lives that is much more substantial than this woman did," Folsom said.
Even the Chinese Embassy has come up empty. So Tuesday, the police turned to the public, hoping with a little information they can find someone close to the woman who went by the name "Diane."
Xie is originally from Harban, China, and entered the United States around 1988. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2003 and did scholastic work at universities in Pennsylvania and Virginia before coming to work at the U., Folsom said.
She worked there part time in 1999 with the chemistry department and in 2000 in the engineering and geoscience department. She was an associate research professor in that department but never taught classes.
Folsom said police initially followed the usual trails to track down people who knew Xie: names in her cell phone, her employment history, information in
"This woman had precious little of that," he said.
Xie lived on the 1200 East block of Alameda Avenue (42 South) before moving to an apartment on the 100 South block of 1300 East in Salt Lake City, Folsom said. Her landlord didn't know her well, and nobody in the building knew her well, either. Police can't even find out if she was employed.
They combed through her home for photos, letters, mail, mailing lists. They went through all of her personal information at the university. No one is listed as next of kin.
"We got a hold of medical records -- they don't list anybody," Folsom said.
Police do not know why Xie was on campus Thursday night. She boarded the shuttle, which had more than 20 people, at the student union stop. As it turned left from North Campus Drive onto Mario Capecchi Drive about 8:20 p.m., she fell out.
"She was standing at the time of the turn, apparently lost her grip and fell against the doors," campus police Sgt. Arbon Nordgran said last week.
Xie may have hit her head on the ground. She was alive but unconscious when Salt Lake City Fire Department paramedics arrived. She died later at University Hospital.
Folsom said police will continue to search for someone who may have known her, even if it means turning over her cell phone for forensic work.
The work will go on, he said, because, "I think we have a duty to the family, to anybody who knows this woman to figure out what was going on in her life."
Anyone with information about Zhilong "Diane" Xie is asked to call University of Utah police at 801-585-2677 801-585-2677 .
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