A well-known Northwestern University professor has been reported missing after going for a walk on Labor Day, according to police.
Nina Kraus, 72, teaches neurobiology and otolaryngology at Northwestern University’s School of Communication. She was last seen leaving her home in the 1500 block of Ashland Avenue in Evanston, Illinois, around 9 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 1, the Evanston Police Department said in a statement on social media.
Northwestern released a statement the same day about her disappearance.
“Northwestern is asking for the community’s help in locating School of Communication Professor Nina Kraus, who was reported missing by her family earlier today — on Monday, Sept. 1,” the school said. Police in Evanston are leading the search, with help from university police.
Kraus was last seen wearing long pants and a windbreaker. She is 5’4” tall, weighs about 140 pounds, and has silver hair, brown eyes, a thin build, and a “very fit” appearance, police said.
As of Tuesday, Sept. 2, officers are following up on tips and searching the nearby lakefront using drones, according to Commander Ryan Glew of the Evanston Police Department. Authorities said there is no sign of foul play.
“The University is hopeful that with the community’s help, we can find Professor Kraus and assure her safety,” Northwestern University said in its statement.
A former student shared her reaction to the news online. “She’s a brilliant professor and researcher at Northwestern,” the woman wrote on Facebook. “I took her class when I was a student there. This is heartbreaking.”
In her faculty profile, Kraus describes herself as “a scientist, inventor, and amateur musician who studies the biology of auditory learning.”
“My research on sound and the brain aims to understand how our life in sound, for better and worse, alters the processing of sound in the brain, makes us us, and affects the world we live in,” she wrote. Kraus also serves as the director of Northwestern’s Hugh Knowles Center.
Police are asking anyone with information to call them at 847-866-5000.
