KOTA BARU: Mohd Ali Salim, one of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 victims, was regarded as a potential national icon, said his former lecturer.
Universiti Sains Malaysia Neuroscience Research and Service Centre director Prof Dr Jafri Malin Abdullah said his former student was a future lecturer in the field of Neuropsychopathology Development.
“I feel we have lost a potential scientist who can help the people of Malaysia. He had another six months to go before completing his studies at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
“He was a student, whom I cared very much after knowing him for the past five years, and was very smart in tackling his studies in a very exacting field,” he told reporters here today.
He said Mohd Ali was a a visionary, who was diligent and dedicated, as well as willing to help the younger undergraduates in the field he was pursuing.
Jafri Malin had last contacted his former student two days before the tragic incident.
“We communicate through email and he expressed his wish to return to Malaysia to celebrate Hari Raya,” he said, adding that Mohd Ali had not gone back to his kampung for the last two years.
The Boeing 777 was carrying 298 passengers and crew in the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed in Notesk, East Ukraine last Thursday.– BERNAMA
