April 9, 2025
It is with great sadness that we share the news that Dr. Michael Ium passed away yesterday after a sudden illness. Michael was a postdoctoral fellow with the DSR and the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies from August 2022 to July 2024.
He was an active and enthusiastic member of the department and centre and could often be seen engaging with students, faculty, and staff on and around campus. He will be greatly missed.
A scholar of Tibetan Buddhism and alumnus of U of T (BSc Psychology), Michael completed an MA at Maitripa College (Buddhist Studies) and an MA and PhD at the University of California Santa Barbara (Buddhist Studies). Michael was in his first year of a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), where he was part of an ERC-funded project called TibSchol: The Dawn of Tibetan Buddhist Scholasticism.
A GoFundMe campaign has been established by a group of Michael’s friends to assist his mother, Young Hee. In addition to her bereavement, she is faced with the expenses involved in travel to, and accommodation in, Vienna to bring Michael’s body home to Toronto, as well as for the funeral arrangements.
Professor Rory Lindsay has been in touch with those close to Michael and we will provide an update on plans for a memorial.