Prof. Ashok R. Patel, who was one of the pioneers in oleogels and an expert in edible oil structures, died in mid-May, 2020 at the age of 38. On May 7, 2020, the school suddenly informed students that he resigned his associate position.
After no more than one week, his body was found in the dormitory of GTIIT. The school didn’t formally explain the reasons. There are someone said privately that he suicided due to depression, while in fact, he is a very kind and optimistic guy. He opens Bollywood dance course twice a week to teach students, faculties and staff dancing in GTIIT. He said this passionate dance makes every dancer released from busy work in day time and provide them with enthusiasm for tomorrow’s work. He had a lot of friends (you can read his Facebook https://www.facebook.com/prashokgoa). He registered for a WeChat account and pasted his QR code on the office’s door. He believed that it could help him accessible to his students and response to students’ questions in time. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/26chGhX-mzF5mRVhK6-fxQ
After his death, almost all students in Biotechnology and Food Engineering , including me, posted blogs in memory of him. Also, many lipid scientists posted messages in memory of him https://www.lipidsfatsoilssurfactantsohmy.com/2020/07/memorial-and-recognition-of-ashok-patel.html).
He was the best academia in the Biotechnology and Food Engineering department in GTIIT. His google scholar citations, even after his death, are still constantly growing. He was young, a rising star, a top lipid scientist, the associate editor of JAOCS (the top lipid journal), and the winner of the 2020 Timothy L. Mounts Award. He edited three books.
Prof. Ashok R. Patel was the first professor I met in GTIIT, he opened an introduction lecture for the Biotechnology and Food Engineering program. l asked some questions, so he remembered me. Later, we met in the canteen, he asked me my grades in summer, I said “95”, he said “that’s the best right? because you are smart.” I said “probably, I don’t know”. At that time, he was asking for a rice noodle. After he received his food, he left without payment. The canteen asked me for help. I went outside to find him, said “hey, hey, you haven’t paid the money”. He came back to the canteen, and told me, “You can call me, Ashok”.
On February, 24, 2020, Prof.Ashok Patel was awarded the Timothy L. Mounts Award.
On May 2020, He was teaching a food chemistry course to 2018 cohort Biotechnology and Food Engineering students, including me. There were videos about his courses in Moodle. After the school suddenly informed students that he resigned on May 7th, 2020, all his videos were removed, and course was cancelled on May 8th, 2020.
On May 10th, 2020, the UG suddenly informed us that the course was reopened and would be taught by Prof. Yigal Achmon.
Then, Prof. Yigal Achmon uploaded previous recorded lecture of Prof. Ashok Patel on May 11th, 2020.
Then, on May 16th, there were news about his death posted in Facebook, and the students in GTIIT started to realize his death.
Then, some of the students shared this news to others, so the WeChat groups started to spread the news of his death on May 17, 2020. Someone said that his body was found in the dormitory and he already died for several days, so the exact time of his death was unknown. According to related news, he died at about May 8-10th, 2020, immediately after the school suddenly informed students that he resigned and before Prof. Yigal Achmon inherited his course.
Then, the UG re-cancelled the course on May 17th, 2020.
The school didn’t say anything about Prof. Ashok Patel’s death, someone in WeChat group started to say that he suicided, not resigned.
He is a really kind guy with high EQ and often invited students to his parties and shared the food he made. I don’t know how he offended those people.
After his sudden death, in summer 2020, Prof. Ashok Patel’s families and friends were questioning his death in Facebook and Twitter, but I didn’t say anything. His families thought this was related to China, they didn’t know that it was related to Prof. Yigal Achmon.
In China, if a Chinese kills a foreigner, then, no matter how powerful that Chinese is, even the relative of a national leader, they will face consequences.
For example, Gu Kailai, who was from the most powerful families in China, killed British businessman Neil Heywood in the end of 2021. In August 2012, Gu was convicted of murdering and was given a suspended death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment in December 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu_Kailai
However, if a foreigner kills another foreigner, then things would be much more complicated, especially in Shantou. GTIIT is a Sino-foreign cooperative educational institution and it has many unique privileges. GTIIT is more powerful than the Shantou police. The Shantou police can hardly investigate professors in GTIIT without GTIIT’s agreement, especially if the professors are foreigners.
In June, 2020, before the application period in China, there was an anonymous answer in Zhihu said that, Ashok’s death was due to long term depression, and completely not related to the school. Yes, someone who opened dance course every week, someone who will smile to me every time I met him, someone who was still actively posting blogs in Facebook until May 6th, 2020, suddenly resigned in May 7th, 2020, and his body was found one week later. I know someone who really suffered depression, and I can distinguish that, I am very sure that Prof. Ashok didn’t have depression.
I was puzzled for a long time, but because Prof. Ashok Patel is an Indian, a leading scholar in lipid science and has strong network in academia, so, I thought, they are not dare to murder such guy, although the reasons they provided are very ridiculous. My leave was also partially due to this, but I was completely unaware about his death was related to Prof. Yigal Achmon. Until yesterday, I realized that his death is very similar to the murder plan of Prof. Yigal Achmon. Also, it was very unusual for a typical teacher to quickly form a detailed murder plan to a student just because he didn’t go to school, he must do or know a much more severe successful case.
Looking back, the only way for me to avoid the murder plan of Prof. Yigal Achmon is finding ways to arrest someone for Prof. Ashok Patel’s case.
In 2020, they dared to murder a top lipid scientist.
In 2022, they dared to murder a student just because he didn’t go to school.
In April 19, 2023, this student terminated the study due to studying difficulties.
Since May, 2023, they dared to murder a potential Nobel prize & Fields Prize winner.
If no one stops such guys, they will dare to murder anyone.
I shared some news about Prof. Ashok Patel in his memory.
Prof. Achok R. Patel was born in a small town in India called “Silvassa” which was part of former Portuguese colony and the town was named after Latin word “Silva” or “a place of woods” which basically highlights the greenery of natural forests and farms we have in our town.
He moved to Goa to attend Goa College of Pharmacy for his Bachelor’s degree and later to Mumbai for Masters after scoring 99.85% and an All India Rank of 6 out of 4591 candidates at the very competitive national level entrance test (GATE 2002). He got interested in research and his thesis work resulted in a provisional patent application. He continued that work further to earn his PhD from the same Institute (Institute of Chemical Technology) which is among the top-ranked engineering institutes in India. In 2009, He moved to Europe and later held research position in Unilever R&D Vlaardingen, Netherlands , associate professor position in Universiteit Gent, Belgium and Marie Curie Cofund established researcher position in INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Portugal. He was award as Young Scientist Award at ICFP 2014, Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia.
This picture was clicked in the beautiful city of Braga in Portugal. Having born in a former Portuguese colony in India, Dr. Patel has a particular fondness for Portugal.
In 2017, December, he joined GTIIT as an associate professor.
In April, 2018, he meets with Nobel Laureates at the German Conculate General in Hong Kong and climbed a mountain in Shantou.
In 2018 March, he was awarded “Young Educator Award-2018” given by the committee of International Conference on Food Properties (ICFP) at the award ceremony held in Sharjah earlier this year. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/MxCwcC-zWoIDigbF-1aFBw
In June, 2018, Prof. Ashok Patel, visited Zhongshan Guishan High School in Zhongshan City and gave a scientific lecture to about 200 Grade 10 students “Tasty Science: A closer look inside the food microstructure”. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/26chGhX-mzF5mRVhK6-fxQ
He was also featured on a top provincial newspaper, Nanfang Daily, at that time.
In December 2018, Prof. Ashok Patel joined the editorial board of Journal of American Oil Chemists’ Society (JAOCS), a top lipid journal, as one of the Associate Editors representing China. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/D45xfrsBOmSLFbqWKpN29w
In January, 2019, an article of Prof. Ashok R. Patel, was included in Encyclopedia of Food Chemistry 2019. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/GArAzL72CDWh22dLcUA19A
On May 13th, 2019, he celebrated the Israeli Independence Day in GTIIT.
In September 2019, Prof. Ashok Patel has been recognized by Publons’ Global Peer Review Awards 2019 as ranking among the top one per cent of peer reviewers in the “Agricultural Sciences” and “Cross-Field” categories of the Essential Science Indicators (ESI). https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ozkz9nYtp3PHbJEq8Y5uXw
On February, 11, 2020, He posted a blog in Facebook celebrating the international day of women and girls in science.
On February, 24, 2020, Prof. Ashok Patel was awarded the Timothy L. Mounts Award.
On April 8th, 2020, he posted a picture in Shantou.
In early May 2020, Prof. Ashok Patel was teaching the food chemistry course to his students, including me.
On May 6th, 2020, he posted his new paper which is the journal cover of Functional Materials.
On May 7th, 2020, the school suddenly announced he resigned and the course would be taught by Prof. Yigal Achmon.
In mid-May, 2020, the students noticed Prof. Ashok Patel’s death in Facebook, while the exact time was unknown.
Although there were many memories event about him by his students and colleges, none of them was done by GTIIT. GTIIT never announced his death formally.
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