Chen Liang was a 32-year-old assistant professor of mechanical engineering at San Diego State University who was killed on August 15, 1996, during a master’s thesis defense meeting in the engineering building. The attacker, 36-year-old graduate student Frederick Martin Davidson, had concealed a 9mm handgun and five spare magazines in a first-aid kit in the room. Davidson retrieved the weapon as the meeting began and fired 23 rounds, reloading once, killing Liang and two other professors, D. Preston Lowrey III and Constantinos Lyrintzis; the students present were allowed to flee.

Davidson told investigators he believed his thesis had been unfairly rejected and accused faculty, especially Liang, of overworking him without credit and of blocking his employment prospects. After the shooting he surrendered to campus police, was arrested, charged with three counts of first-degree murder, and later sentenced to three consecutive life terms without parole. The community held memorials for the three professors.