- Indian-origin UCSB PhD student Vikram Mubayi was found dead after hiking in California’s Big Pine Lakes
- Mubayi last contacted family on August 1 with GPS coordinates before being reported missing
- Search and rescue teams found his body in Inyo National Forest on August 3
An Indian-origin student at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), has been found dead after he went missing during a solo hiking trip in California's Big Pine Lakes area over the weekend, authorities have confirmed. The body of Vikram Mubayi, a PhD student in UCSB's Department of Chemical Engineering, was recovered from Inyo National Forest, according to student publication Daily Nexus.
The doctoral student last contacted his family at around 8:30 pm on August 1, sharing his GPS coordinates while on the trail. When he failed to return to his outpost on schedule or make further contact with his family, they reported him missing, triggering a search operation by Inyo County Search and Rescue and the California Highway Patrol, who found him dead on the evening of August 3.
Investigators have not released details about how he died, but there has been no indication of foul play either. The circumstances surrounding Mubayi's death remain under investigation.
About Vikram Mubayi
Mubayi was born and raised in Hong Kong. In a Reddit post, his family described him as a "fairly experienced hiker." In a self-written biography posted on the website of Illini 4000 -- a student-led non-profit--Mubayi described himself as someone who loved sports and "being outdoors."
He said his mother got him "into hiking and tennis pretty much as soon as I learned how to walk." His bio showed he was also an experienced cyclist.
Before attending UCSB, he wrote that he graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering. At UIUC, he worked as an undergraduate research assistant at the Burke Laboratory and also as a teaching assistant.
During his time at UCSB, Mubayi conducted research on bacteria and biological methods for breaking down plant waste and plastics, with the goal of developing sustainable alternatives to petroleum, showed his LinkedIn profile.
