Body found in river that of Drexel professor, 29

The body of Nagesh Idupulapati, 29, was pulled from the Schuylkill River on Tuesday. (Facebook Photo)
The body of Nagesh Idupulapati, 29, was pulled from the Schuylkill River on Tuesday. (Facebook Photo)
Mike Newall, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: March 21, 2012

A body pulled from the Schuylkill in Philadelphia Tuesday has been identified as that of a Drexel University professor from Lower Merion Township.

Nagesh Idupulapati, a 29-year-old mechanical engineering assistant research professor, had been reported missing by the Lower Merion Police Department March 11, police said.

Idupulapati, who was originally from India, had written in a suicide note that he was going to jump off a bridge, police said. The day after he went missing police had recovered Idupulapati's Honda Accord near the Strawberry Mansion Bridge.

Tuesday, around 4 p.m., police Marine Unit officers found his body floating in the river near Martin Luther King Drive and Black Road. A Drexel University faculty card was discovered with his remains, police said.

The Medical Examiner's Office says it does not yet have a manner of death. Police said they did not know how long Idupulapati's body was submerged. A rise in temperatures can cause bodies to float to the top.

Idupulapati had been teaching at Drexel for a month before his death, working in the complex fluids and multiphase transport lab of the engineering department.

"Drexel is saddened by the loss of the newly hired faculty member," said Niki Gianakaris, a university spokeswoman. "The Drexel community's thoughts are with his family."

Before arriving at Drexel, Idupulapati had obtained his Ph.D. from Louisiana Tech University and a Postdoc Associate at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state.

According to his Facebook page, he had been married for a little over a year.

 

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