Voices from around the campus expressed shock and heartfelt condolences to the family of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, son of Judea Pearl, professor emeritus of computer science. News of the journalist's death at the hands of his captors broke Feb. 21.

Daniel Pearl

"The entire UCLA community mourns this tragic loss of a valued member of our extended family," stated Chancellor Albert Carnesale.

On behalf of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, Vijay Dhir, interim dean, said: "I want to extend to Judea Pearl our deepest sympathies for his incalculable loss. We are terribly saddened by this tragedy and extend to the entire Pearl family our condolences."

Milos D. Ercegovac, chair of the Computer Science Department, said faculty, staff and students felt deep sorrow and shock after learning of Pearl's death.

"Daniel, by all accounts, was a wonderful and caring human being genuinely trying to help people understand problems in the most troubled parts of the world. The brutal murder of Daniel Pearl is a frightening setback for all in the civilized world."

Said longtime colleague Gerald Estrin, emeritus professor of computer science: "I am totally depressed by this barbarism. It's just incomprehensible. All that I can express is sadness for the family. We just want to support them and do anything we can to comfort and help them."

While Pearl's wife, Mariane, who is seven months pregnant with the couple's first child, had made televised appeals, the Pearl family had remained silent throughout the ordeal out of concern for their son's safety.

In a statement Feb. 21, family spokesman Gary Foster said the Pearls had, to the end, thought "Danny would return safely, for we believed no human being would be capable of harming such a gentle soul.

"Danny's senseless murder lies beyond our comprehension. Danny was a beloved son, a brother, an uncle, a husband and a father to a child who will never know him.

"A musician, a writer, a storyteller and a bridge builder, he was a walking sunshine of truth, humor, friendship and compassion. We grieve with the many who have known him in his life and we weep for a world that must reckon with his death."

An authority in artificial intelligence, Judea Pearl is recognized internationally for his fundamental work on heuristic search, reasoning under uncertainty and causality. He directs the Cognitive Systems Laboratory at UCLA.