CHICAGO – Amadou Cisse was just weeks from receiving his doctorate degree from the University of Chicago in chemistry.

The 29-year-old graduate student and native of Dakar, Senegal, earlier this month had successfully defended his dissertation, a study of how molecules diffuse and migrate through polymers.

But Cisse’s accomplishments were cut short when he was shot to death early Monday – less than an hour after a university staff member was shot at while walking nearby and two female students were robbed at gunpoint, police said. The string of violence has put the university on alert with increased security patrols, community meetings and vigils.

Shortly before 1:30 a.m. Monday, a witness saw a gunman fire a shot at Cisse’s chest before fleeing in a car, police said. The shooting may have been an attempted robbery, although Cisse’s wallet and books were left behind, police said.

The Senegalese Embassy in Washington said he was the son of a deceased military officer and his mother, two brothers and a sister live in Dakar, the nation’s capital.

Cisse attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he graduated in 2001 with degrees in chemistry, physics and mathematics.

He was remembered at Bates as a brilliant student and a very nice person.

“Faculty and staff who knew him are just stunned and devastated today that someone who could have done so much for the world is now gone,” said Bryan McNulty, a college spokesman.

At the University of Chicago, Cisse was a teaching assistant for general chemistry classes. He was to receive his diploma Dec. 7, but now the university says it will award the degree posthumously.

“He was a diligent researcher and very committed to his science and colleagues,” Cisse’s faculty adviser, professor Steven Sibener, said in a release issued by the university. “He was incredibly happy last week. He smiled ear-to-ear and just sat back and enjoyed his accomplishment.”

Cisse was killed near a campus that is in the upscale Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago but borders impoverished parts of the city’s South Side. The campus is patrolled by both Chicago police officers and a force of, according to the school, more than 140 state-certified university police officers who have full police powers.

But the areas around campus have some students limiting where they travel, said Sarah Jackman, 21, a religious studies major from Galena, Ill.

“There is a nucleus of the campus and you’re not supposed to go outside it,” Jackman said as she walked to class on Tuesday. “A lot of students will perpetuate this image that you’re not supposed to go outside the university zone.”

Justin Hartmann, 20, a sophomore English major from Atlanta, said he got the idea that he shouldn’t go past certain streets into some neighborhoods. He said students have a reputation for not leaving their dorms.

“I’ve never felt unsafe in Hyde Park,” he said. “It’s no better or worse than any other neighborhood in Chicago. The university does all it can do to make us safe. The university does a lot to protect us.”

Meghan White, 19, a sophomore from Oakland, Calif., said she doesn’t think the recent violence is a question of neighborhood boundaries.

“It’s really sad that this had to happen, but I don’t think it speaks to how safe you are here,” White said. “It speaks to how safe you are in an urban environment in the present world.”

Since the violence, University President Robert Zimmer said in a letter to students that the school would indefinitely increase the number of car patrols after 4 p.m. and add more officers on bicycles. School officials also said they would step up the SafeRide program, which provides late-night transportation for faculty, staff and students, and the school also is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the shooting.