Dear Birck and ECE Communities, Zelong (Bruce) Ding was a Purdue ECE graduate candidate until this weekend when he tragically passed away after a long and incredibly courageous battle with leukemia. He was surrounded by his loving family and fiancée who moved heaven and earth to be with him. If you ask anyone who worked with Bruce at Purdue and they will all share with you stories about Bruce's exceptional kindness, compassion, perseverance, joy, and scientific spirit. Bruce gave his all during his time as part of our community as a researcher, friend, and member of the Birck and ECE communities. Now, we as a community have a small opportunity to help Bruce's family through this incredibly hard time. To this end, we are reaching out to kindly ask for donations to ease the financial burden on his family to allow them to focus on Bruce's remarkable life and legacy. Any donations big or small are appreciated and can be deposited at the following GoFundMe link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/zelong-bruce-ding?utm_medium=email&utm_source=product&utm_campaign=p_email%2B2300-co-team-welcome<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gofundme.com%2Ff%2Fzelong-bruce-ding%3Futm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dproduct%26utm_campaign%3Dp_email%252B2300-co-team-welcome&data=05%7C01%7CBnc-grads-list%40ecn.purdue.edu%7Cb3024eb177ac43a1347f08dbc45f5928%7C4130bd397c53419cb1e58758d6d63f21%7C0%7C0%7C638319686031409072%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=qJCkY7vzXZqUSwvYwnYIVXhyk0RerCJv0XRH2QzOWPg%3D&reserved=0> A funeral to commemorate Bruce's remarkable life will be held this upcoming Thursday at 9:30 am CST (10:30 am EST) at the following link: https://www.winfordfunerals.com/memorials/zelong-ding/5283966/<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.winfordfunerals.com%2Fmemorials%2Fzelong-ding%2F5283966%2F&data=05%7C01%7CBnc-grads-list%40ecn.purdue.edu%7Cb3024eb177ac43a1347f08dbc45f5928%7C4130bd397c53419cb1e58758d6d63f21%7C0%7C0%7C638319686031409072%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4ANUQXf2HYSbWz%2BzSmQjEVBRuCJNysvALIxFCzOH9%2FA%3D&reserved=0> Birck 2001 is reserved for streaming starting at 10:00 am EST, all are welcome. Thank you, Sasha Boltasseva (Bruce's Ph.D. co-advisor) And the entire ECE/Birck Nanophotonics Team