Jason Arday, a former professor at the University of Cambridge, has died at age 41. Emergency workers found him at a home in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon. Police said his death was unexpected, but they do not think another person caused it. His family said they were in shock.

Arday left Cambridge one week before his death. People had said that he copied parts of other people’s work. He said he did not copy work, but he accepted that his work had some mistakes. He also said the strong public attacks had hurt him and his family. In 2023, at age 37, he became Cambridge’s youngest Black professor.

Cambridge said it was very sad about his death. Education Secretary Lucy Powell asked people to remember that public stories affect real people and their families. Cambridge had started an independent check of how it gave Arday his job. Other universities had also planned checks of his earlier work. It is not yet clear what will happen to these checks after his death.