Professor, 72, Vanished After Leaving Home for Walk

A beloved professor at Northwestern University left her home in Illinois to go for a walk on Labor Day and hasn’t been seen since, authorities said. 

Nina Kraus, a 72-year-old professor of neurobiology and otolaryngology at Northwestern University School of Communication, went missing after she was last seen leaving her house in the 1500 block of Ashland Ave in Evanston on Monday, Sept. 1, around 9 a.m. local time, the Evanston Police Department said in a statement on social media.

That same day, the university published a statement about Kraus’ 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. The local police department is leading the search, with the assistance of university police. 

The woman was last seen wearing long pants and a windbreaker. She’s 5’ 4” tall, 140 lbs., with silver hair, brown eyes, a thin build and a “very fit” appearance, authorities said. 

As of Tuesday, Sept. 2, police are following tips that have come in and conducting a search of the nearby lakefront with the help of drones, Commander Ryan Glew of the Evanston Police Department confirms to PEOPLE. No foul play is suspected.

“The University is hopeful that with the community’s help, we can find Professor Kraus and assure her safety,” Northwestern University said. 

The university did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for further information. 

In response to the police posting, a former student spoke out. 

“She’s a brilliant professor and researcher at Northwestern,” wrote one woman on Facebook. “I took her class when I was a student there. This is heartbreaking.” 

In Kraus’ faculty profile, she describes herself as “a scientist, inventor, and amateur musician who studies the biology of auditory learning.”

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“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,” wrote Kraus, who also serves as the director of Northwestern’s Hugh Knowles Center.

Police urge anyone with information about Kraus’ whereabouts to contact them at 847-866-5000.