Shan Aman-Rana (Friend and officemate Room 4.06 LSE) 7th March 2023

I was fortunate to meet Weihan during the PhD at LSE. Later we became officemates and friends. We both shared research interests (state capacity, dev, org econ, overall political econ) and had promised to write together. People are alive but not many truly live their life. That was not the case with Weihan! He was drunk on life! He made the most of his passions, his knowledge, his intelligence, his love for his family and friends, music, and food. We discovered so many restaurants, so much history, so much econ all through him. One of my earliest memories of him were of him entering the school with a sandwich in his hand. Other times when he was not able to grab lunch in time, he would look for Claudio or one of the guys to go with him and grab cake/tea or lunch. He was social! He enjoyed every single one of his breaks and (at times) later complained it stretched from 20 min to 1.5 hours:) Even while I write this his images flash before my eyes. Not in one of those is he tired or bored. Always smiling. Always uplifting, cracking jokes even in stressful times like the job market. Such a confident soul he would crack jokes about his ability. But never would he joke about others. He was a theoretical genius. He particularly liked math. I remember his face would light up on the mention of a hard mathematical problem. He was very enthusiastic about helping others. At times he helped me, and it was hard to make his stop. He focused on the problem at hand as if it was his own paper. I remember feeling embarrassed that it took longer than expected, but he brushed my concerns aside, took a bite of his sandwich and kept going. I have so many pictures of Yilun! He was such a proud dad. So excited to share little moments, milestones. I remember him enjoying Biryani at Shamsher’s (my son) first birthday. He was very happy to be there and enjoy a nice day with his friends. Like Weihan I also had my kid during the PhD. Shamsher was a year older and it was a great joy to hand down some of his stuff to Yilun. My heart goes out to the family, Leyi and Yilun. May they find joy in the fact that in 31 years what Weihan drew from life, many wouldn’t even if they had a century to live. He lives on in each one of us he touched! May we have the grace to carry his legacy forward and be humble, passionate and joyful.