Cheistha Kochhar, who was a student at LSE

THE family of a cyclist who died in a collision with a bin lorry said the “magnitude of their loss is incomprehensible”.

London School of Economics PhD student Cheistha Kochhar was an “exceptional human” who was “deeply intelligent” and easily made friends with anyone she met.

The 33-year-old’s sup­er­visor at the university spoke movingly about her to the Tribune this week, recalling how she comforted her through cancer treatment.

Ms Kochhar, who was riding a Human Forest e-bike with her husband, was killed in a collision with a lorry in Clerkenwell Road last Tuesday near the junction with Farringdon Road, at around 8.20pm.

She is the first cyclist to be killed in London this year and the hire bike company’s first fatality.

The driver stopped and is helping the police with their enquiries, the Met said.

This week, her father Dr SP Kochhar, who is the chief executive of a telecoms business and a retired lieutenant general in India, said on LinkedIn that he was “still in London trying to collect the remains of [his] daughter”. The tragedy has “devastated us and her large circle of friends”.

In a statement, the family added: “She always had a hug to spare for anyone and she lived her life with the principle that it was more important to be the kindest person in the room, than to be the smartest person in the room.

Cheistha with Dr Lourdes Sosa

“In the short span she had on this planet, she touched tens of thousands of people in extremely meaningful ways.”

Ms Kochhar was born in Bareilly, northern India, and went to high school and university in New Delhi. She studied economics and mathematics at Delhi University and did a masters in international development and policy at the University of Chicago.

While in Delhi, she worked at the Centre of Civil Society and later took up various roles in the Indian government. As an undergraduate, she founded a start-up to distribute excess food from college canteens to those in need.

Ms Kochhar had “the heart of an academician” having worked with Nobel laureates. She moved to London for her PhD in behavioural science.

Dr Lourdes Sosa, Ms Kochhar’s supervisor at LSE, told the Tribune that Ms Kochhar was the “perfect PhD student”.

When Dr Sosa was diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer last September, Ms Kochhar went above her duties as a first-year PhD student to take on her supervisor’s teaching while she recovered.

Dr Sosa said: “My surgery took place 27th September, and I have Cheistha’s messages before and after reminding me that it was all going to be OK.

Flowers left at the scene of the collision

“She agreed to a teaching assistantship to support me; she even insisted on carrying teaching materials for me. Unlike any other PhD student, she ended up leading her first teaching seminar just two months after joining LSE. She was always solving things for me.

“As my physiotherapy advanced successfully, she started one of our research meetings by telling me that the LSE dance club would soon start salsa lessons, she was in. She knew I would look forward to that too. I am Catholic. I believe we will have our salsa lesson. We will just have to wait for it.”

Dr Lidiia Pletneva, assistant professor at LSE, said: “I was talking to Cheistha just several days before the tragedy and remember thinking how grateful I am to have such a colleague who really brightens up the day by her warm pure energy and kind words.

“If only I knew this was our last interaction. She will stay in my memory as an exceptional human being who brought light and warmth into this world.”

A spokesperson from Forest said: “We were deeply saddened to learn of the fatal incident in Clerkenwell. Our condolences and sympathies go to the individual’s family and friends.”

There have been no arrests.

• Anyone who witnessed the incident, or road users who have footage which captured events, is urged to call the Met and quote CAD6903/19Mar.