A Canadian professor, Holocaust survivor, and a renowned biomechanics researcher are among the victims killed Monday in a shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus.

Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, a French-language professor from Truro, N.S., has been identified as one of the 32 victims of the worst shooting incident in U.S. history.

Her husband, Virginia Tech horticulture professor Jerzy Nowak, confirmed her death in brief interviews with The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press.

Both Couture-Nowak and her husband taught at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) before moving to Virginia Tech where they took teaching posts.

"He gave us a call to tell us that he and the three NSAC exchange students were fine, and at that time, wasn't aware that his wife had also been shot," Lloyd Mapplebeck, an NSAC professor, told CTV Atlantic.

Three NSAC students, two from Nova Scotia and one from Prince Edward Island, are currently studying at Virginia Tech as part of an international academic mobility program. They are confirmed to be safe.

In a sign of solidarity and sympathy for its sister institution, Virginia Tech, NSAC lowered its flags Tuesday.

Bernie MacDonald, NSAC's vice-president, described Couture-Novak as a "very enthusiastic, vibrant person. She was very kind and warm and loving."

Fellow Virginia Tech professor, Craig Brians, says he often had lunch with Nowak as she was friends with his wife.

"She was a very nice person," he told Canada AM. "My wife often described Jocelyn as someone, when she'd walk into a room, just would bring a smile to the room, that even in the darkest of situations, she had something encouraging to say. She would have something uplifting to say."

"I heard nothing but exemplary comments from her students. When her students would take one of my classes, one of the things we're rated or evaluated on at this university is care and concern about students and she had the highest care and concern for her students."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his condolences for the victims at the beginning of question period on Tuesday.

"We learned that a Canadian is among the victims in Virginia and I can say that the prayers thoughts and condolences of each and every one of us here in the House are with that family," Harper said in French.

"It's really almost impossible to comprehend why an individual would take his own life and that of so many others in this way, but I think we can all say that our thoughts are with all the victims, their families and the community," he said.

Other victims

The names of all the victims will be released only after all the victims have been identified and families have been contacted, police said Tuesday. However, some have already been identified.

Liviu Librescu, 75, an engineering science and mathematics lecturer who survived the Nazi killings and later escaped from Communist Romania, was one of several victims of the shootings, which coincided with Israel's Holocaust remembrance day

Librescu, who taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years, had an international reputation for his work in aeronautical engineering.

Librescu's son, Joe, said his father's students sent emails detailing how the professor saved their lives by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the approaching gunman before he was fatally shot.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Librescu's son, Joe Librescu, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv.

"Students started opening windows and jumping out."

Professor Kevin Granata was also killed, AP reported. Ishwar K. Puri, the head of the engineering science and mechanics department, called Granata one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy.

Indian-born G.V. Loganathan, 51, a lecturer at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was shot and killed by the gunman, his brother G.V. Palanivel told the NDTV news channel.

Loganathan won several awards for excellence in teaching, had served on the faculty senate and was an adviser to about 75 undergraduate students.

Ryan Clark, a fifth-year student from Martinex, Ga., who was working toward degrees in biology and English.

Other victims include:

  • Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass., according to his mother, Lynnette Alameddine.
  • Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, killed in his French class, according to his mother, Betty Cueva, of Peru.
  • Caitlin Hammaren, 19, of Westtown, N.Y., a sophomore majoring in international studies and French, according to Minisink Valley, N.Y., school officials who spoke with Hammaren's family.
  • Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, of Bellefonte, Pa., according to Penn State University, his alma mater and his father's employer.
  • Emily Jane Hilscher, a 19-year-old freshman from Woodville, according to Rappahannock County Administrator John W. McCarthy, a family friend.
  • Matthew J. La Porte, 20, a freshman from Dumont, N.J., according to Dumont Police Chief Brian Venezio.
  • Jarrett L. Lane, according to Riffe's Funeral Service Inc. in Narrows, Va.
  • Daniel O'Neil, 22, according to close friend Steve Craveiro and according to Eric Cardenas of Connecticut College, where O'Neil's father, Bill, is director of major gifts.
  • Juan Ramon Ortiz, a 26-year-old graduate student in engineering from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, according to his wife, Liselle Vega Cortes.
  • Mary Karen Read, 19, of Annandale, Va. according to her aunt, Karen Kuppinger, of Rochester, N.Y.

With a report from CTV Atlantic's Dan McIntosh and files from The Associated Press