Johns Hopkins Grad Student Dies in Iraq

University Stunned After Baghdad Blast

Nicole Suveges was not the type of woman to back away from controversy.

So when Laura Locker learned that her friend, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, had joined the Army's Human Terrain System, a program that embeds social scientists within military units, Locker said she was not surprised.

But friends and faculty members at Hopkins were stunned this week when they learned that Suveges, 38, was among four Americans killed in an explosion Tuesday in the District Council building in the Sadr City section of Baghdad.

"Two hours ago, I thought she was fine and I thought she was going to come back and defend her dissertation," Mark Blyth, an associate professor of political science and Suveges's primary faculty adviser said in a statement. "She was a very bright, engaging, sweet person, very intellectually curious."

Political science professor Matthew Crenson, who was the director of graduate studies the year Suveges was admitted to Hopkins about eight years ago, described her as an "unusual student," who brought a wealth of experience to the department.

In the 1990s, as a U.S. Army reservist, Suveges served in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 2006, Suveges spent a year in Iraq as a civilian contractor and social science adviser to the military. She returned from that tour, Blyth said, with data to analyze for her dissertation on "Markets & Mullahs: Global Networks, Transnational Ideas and the Deep Play of Political Culture." During her most recent tour, which began in April, Suveges was employed by Rockville-based BAE Systems, a contractor.

"She came to us to give freely of herself in an effort to make a better world," said Doug Belair, president of BAE System's Technology Solutions and Services line of business, in a statement. "Nicole was a leading academic who studied for years on how to improve conditions for others."

Suveges expected that this tour in Iraq would provide the final data she needed to finish her dissertation. She received a master of arts degree in international affairs from George Washington University in 1998. She grew up in Illinois and graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1992.

Blyth said that after the war in Iraq began, Suveges decided she wanted her research to focus on the transition from an authoritarian government to democracy, and the impact on ordinary citizens.

Locker said Suveges had two sides to her personality. There was the "tough Army woman," and the "total sweetheart" who would do anything for anybody.

Locker said yesterday that Suveges was the type of person who could win people over.

"When I first met her, I was sure I wasn't going to like her," Locker said. "She was an Army woman, and she was Republican, very outspoken. I'm a diehard Democrat."

Locker, who worked with Suveges when they were teaching assistants in 2003, said it was Suveges's tenacity that won her over. Or maybe it was her love for dogs, the way she was willing to cook meals for a classmate she had never met because the woman's father had passed away, or how unafraid she was to speak her mind.

"She was a conservative person in a liberal department," Locker said. "She brought a much-needed perspective to our department . . .

"The fact that she was one of my only Republican friends says a lot," Locker said. "I adored her."