Four hours after members of a special rescue team plucked him from the waters of the Icy Charles River near Kendall Square, an MIT grad student was pronounced early yesterday morning.

Randall Chipperfield, 26, was pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital at 3:30 a.m., according to hospital spokesman Martin Bander.

"We believe the death was an accidental drowning," said James R. Bruce, divemaster for the water division of the Metropolitan Police. "We think he was taking a shortcut across the river for reasons we do not know," Bruce said.

He added that the river's two- or three- inch thickness near the bank may have fooled Chipperfield into believing the entire river for solid enough to walk across. Chipperfield into believing the entire river was solid enough to walk across. Chipperfield tried to cross the river near the Longfellow Bridge, police believe.

the Metropolitan Police received a call just after 10 p.m. from a motorist who saw something in the river. A search team spotted Chipperfield soon after, and rescue units arrived on the scene about ten minutes later. The team pulled the student out of the river at 11 p.m. according to Bruce.

Clipperfield, a Calgary, Ontario native, graduated from the University of Calgary in 1980 with a degree in biochemistry, according to Robert Byers, a spokesman from the MIT News Office.

He entered MIT five years ago, and was to begin post-doctoral studies at Columbia University this fall, Byers said.