Yale student killed in lab accident

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The Yale University community is mourning the death of a "brilliant" and "vibrant" senior who was killed in a laboratory overnight Wednesday after her hair became caught in a lathe.

Just weeks away from graduating, Michele Elizabeth Dufault -- an astronomy and physics major -- was working on a class project in the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory when the accident happened, said Yale President Richard C. Levin in a statement Wednesday evening.

Levin said Dufault's body was found by other students who had been working in the building. They called the police at 2:26 a.m.

A spokeswoman at the office of the state medical examiner said Dufault died of accidental asphyxia by neck compression.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into conditions in the laboratory, said Ted Fitzgerald, spokesman for OSHA's Boston regional office.

"The purpose is to determine what safety standards apply and whether or not the employer complied with those standards," Fitzgerald said.

Yale is also conducting a "thorough review" of the safety policies and practices of laboratories, machine shops, and other facilities with power equipment that is accessed and operated by undergraduates. Until the review is completed, undergraduate access to these facilities will be limited to hours that will be specified by the end of the week, Levin said.

Levin, who along with Vice President Linda Koch Lorimer met with Dufault's family, said her parents will return to the university before the end of the semester to attend a memorial service in their daughter's honor.

"By all reports, Michele was an exceptional young woman, an outstanding student and young scientist, a dear friend and a vibrant member of this community," Lorimer wrote in a statement posted on the school's website. "We will find ways in the next day to gather to celebrate her life and grieve this loss."

Dufault was from Scituate, Mass., a Yale spokesman said. She was pursuing a bachelor of science degree in astronomy and physics and was looking forward to pursuing a career in oceanography after graduation, Levin said.

Dufault spent the summer working as a student fellow in a competitive program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass.

Only 10 percent of applicants get into the summer program, said Jim Yoder, vice president for academic programs at Woods Hole. She was one of 30 college students from around the country selected, he said.

Once accepted, he said, Dufault worked with a scientist on a challenging project: They sent torpedo-shaped, robotic vehicles into the ocean to measure things like temperature, currents and salinity, Yoder said.

"She was an excellent student," he said.

Dufault graduated from Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Mass. in 2007, the school said in a statement. She was a student there for six years, beginning in the seventh grade.

Nobles Head of School Robert P. Henderson Jr. described Dufault as brilliant, precocious and humble in the statement: "Michele was an extraordinary young woman, one of the most precocious students who her teachers ever encountered," he said. "She was simply brilliant. Her mind, her sense of curiosity, her perceptiveness, her sensitivity, and her enjoyment of what she did were extraordinary. She was a true intellectual."

Despite her intelligence, Henderson said, Dufault was "distinctly humble, seemingly unaffected by her prodigious talent and academic attainments. Those who knew her were drawn to her personal strength, modesty, good humor and perseverance. Her successes here touched almost every aspect of the school's program."

Joe O'Rourke, a junior at Yale who marched with Dufault in the Yale's marching band and belonged to Yale's Society of Physics Students with her, said Dufault was the "hardest working person I knew . . . She was incredibly passionate about science and about sharing her enthusiasm for exploration and discovery."

As a co-president of the physics society last semester, Dufault also was "incredibly effective" at getting more women interested in physics, O'Rourke said.

In the band, O'Rourke said, Dufault played the saxophone and was a section leader. "She was just an inspiration," O'Rourke said. "People wanted to follow her . . . She had an incredibly bright future ahead of her."

Shivani Bhatt, a Yale sophomore, said she met Dufault this year and was immediately impressed by her.

"She was a really enthusiastic person, very energetic and involved in her research," said Bhatt, who had been walking outside the Sterling Chemistry lab building Wednesday afternoon. Bhatt, a biology major, said she would often have breakfast or lunch with Dufault.

"We talked a lot about what we'd like to do after school." Dufault, she said, was heading into the field of oceanography, but wasn't sure whether she wanted to concentrate on the engineering aspect of it or take a more scholarly approach to the research.

"She talked about maybe making the devices that go into the ocean to measure the currents," she said.

Bhatt also knew her through Girl Science Investigations, a program started by Yale faculty designed to bring science to middle school girls in New Haven. She said many of the girls looked up to Dufault.

"I looked up to her also," she said.

Courant staff writers and contributed to this story.