The University of Arizona lost not only an outstanding scholar but a friend, family member, nature-lover and adventurer on Tuesday, March 5. Genevieve Comeau was a Ph.D. student in the Department of Entomology and Insect Science pursuing a minor in Epidemiology. She and her boyfriend were found shot dead in a house near campus. Police are currently considering it a murder-suicide, determining that her boyfriend shot her before killing himself, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

Comeau’s academic focus was insect-borne diseases. Specifically, she researched the yellow fever mosquito. According to her friend Chris Marin’s obituary, she wanted to help prevent the spread of the Zika virus. Her work allowed her to run scientific models to predict outbreaks.

She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Florida and graduated cum laude. At the UA, she was a Carson and National Science Foundation Fellow.

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Marin wrote that she loved to help make her friends stronger and more comfortable in their own skin, writing “she had a knack for making people feel like they were squarely in the center of the universe when she spoke to them.”

Marin also added that even in physical endeavors, she encouraged her friends to never quit and helped them to overcome physical obstacles. When she went rock climbing with her friends, she would not let them give up so easily.

On a deeper level, Marin wrote, “she had no patience for pretension or insincerity, relishing when her friends were true to who they were. Genevieve eschewed social convention. The freer we danced, the happier she was.”

On Thursday, March 14, a vigil was held on the UA Mall in her honor.

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