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Indian-origin PhD student found dead in California forest
Mubayi had been hiking in the Big Pine Lakes area and last contacted his family on Aug. 1.
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Staff Reporter - Fri, 07, Aug 2026
- 05:04 EDT
- 30
Vikram Mubayi / UCSB
An Indian-origin PhD student was found dead in the US' Inyo National Forest after he went missing during a solo hiking trip in California's Big Pine Lakes area.
Vikram Mubayi, a chemical engineering doctoral candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was found dead on Aug. 3, according to reports and information provided by his family.
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Mubayi had been hiking in the Big Pine Lakes area and last contacted his family at about 8:37 p.m. on Aug. 1, according to a Reddit post by his sibling.
Inyo County Search and Rescue participated in the search for Mubayi. His body was subsequently located and recovered on Aug. 3 by the California Highway Patrol.
Mubayi was born and raised in Hong Kong and was described by his sibling as a "fairly experienced hiker." In a self-written biography on the website of Illini 4000, a student-led nonprofit organization he had been involved with, Mubayi described his love of sports and "being outdoors."
Before joining UCSB, Mubayi graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.
After he was reported missing, a Reddit post by his sibling said: "My brother Vikram is 6-foot-3, 170 pounds, has dark hair and has been out of contact since 8:30 p.m. yesterday in the Big Pine Lakes area in the Eastern Sierra."
At UCSB's Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering, Mubayi's research focused on using bacteria and biological processes to break down plant waste and plastics, with the broader goal of developing sustainable alternatives to petroleum, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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