The School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering lecturer, who is 45, was supervising his alleged attacker, Indonesian student David Hartanto Widjaja, during his final-year project when the stabbing took place.

A colleague of Prof Chan, who did not want to be named, was in his office during yesterday morning's commotion. He described his colleague as a good-natured person.

He said: 'He's a good, hard-working fellow, I've never seen him having an argument with anyone before, so I was very shocked when I heard he was stabbed.'

Former student Ricky Purnomo, 31, described the lecturer as someone who readily offered help to students when they approached him - there was no need to book appointments.

'If you need help and you go to him, he'll help you,' said the project manager, who added that Prof Chan was a 'soft-spoken' man.

The lecturer has been with the school since 1992. He studied in Britain, where he received his bachelor's degree and doctorate from the University of London. Before he started teaching, he worked in London as an information engineer.

According to his profile on the NTU website, Prof Chan - whose research interests include computer vision and machine learning - has published more than 40 'top quality' international conference and journal papers. He was also regularly invited to review subjects in academic journals.

He is married with two young children and likes music, travelling, cooking, eating and swimming.

Fellow staff said he liked to go for walks around the campus with his children, who they have become acquainted with over the years.

The family lives in Lakeside, located near the university.

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