Rensselaer Professor Shubo Xu died on October 12 of complications from lung cancer.
Xu joined RPI as a clinical professor for the management school in 1995, teaching probability for business, management science, and production management.
Xu earned his bachelor’s degree from Nankai University in China and his doctorate from Tianjin University, China. Since coming to RPI, he has been active in increasing relations between the RPI and China.
He served as director of the Sino-U.S. Management and Technology MBA Program. In that role, he created an MBA program designed specifically for Chinese students studying in the United States. SUMBA has helped over 200 students earn their degrees since 1998.
Before joining RPI’s faculty, he served at the University of Pittsburgh as a visiting professor in the Katz Graduate School of Business from 1989 to 1992, and at the College of West Virginia as professor and chair of the school’s MBA planning committee from 1992 to 1995.
He was active in research, leading several projects during his career in the fields of decision making, business plans, and feasibility analysis. His research interests included the Analytic Hierarchy Process, a method of applying weights to the different factors involved in a decision between a number of options. He was also well-published; he wrote four books in Chinese and published a number of articles in English.
“We remain shocked and saddened by the untimely passing of Professor Xu Shubo,” said Dean Denis Fred Simon in a message posted on the management school’s website. “We are sad to have him leave us so early in his life, obviously before all his work was completed.”
Xu’s funeral was held on October 20. A memorial service for the Rensselaer community members is scheduled for today at 11 am at the Chapel and Cultural Center.
Editor’s Note: Graduates in the SUMBA program submitted a letter to The Polytechnic, which is published in the Editorial/Opinion section on page 9. Information for this article was gathered from the Lally School’s website at http://lallyschool.rpi.edu/news/shuboxu.html.
