Duke, April 6: The Board of Trustees of Duke University has announced setting up of a fellowship in the memory of slain Indian graduate student Abhijit Mahato.

The announcement was made by the University President Richard Brodhead in a meeting with Indian American community leaders and friends of Mahato.

The Abhijit Mahato Memorial Fellowship will provide financial support to a Duke international graduate student who is studying engineering, with preference given to a student from India, the University has said in a statement.

Mahato (29), an IIT Kanpur alumnus who was studying for an engineering doctorate degree at the Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering in Durham, was found shot dead by his friends at his residence near the campus on 18th January.

In a letter to Mahato's parents, Brodhead noted that the university's trustees had approved the establishment of a memorial and expressed his sorrow over their son's death.

"I attended the memorial services where your son's professors and many of his friends described him with lowing admiration. We continue to mourn his loss but are glad that he will be remembered at Duke in this enduring way," the University President said in his letter.

The Indian American community has welcomed the estabishment of the Fellowship.

"As we, as a community, mourn the loss of this brilliant young man, we continue to seek to sustain strength through our grief. We commend Duke's bold initiative and feel that Abhijit's hard work and diligence at Duke - so tragically cut short - will live on through the fellowship and the many international students it will benefit," said Swadesh Chatterjee, a community leader.