A landscape architecture student at Harvard's Graduate School of Design died in a car accident early Saturday morning, less than three weeks before he was to graduate.

Martin Mildbrandt, 28, was driving southbound on Interstate 495 near Berlin when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel, according to State Trooper Kevin Burke.

State police arrived at the scene at about 7:15 a.m. Saturday after being contacted by a witness to the accident who was riding in another car, Burke said.

According to Burke, the witness told the police that Mildbrandt's head was tilted and that he appeared to be sleeping while the car was in motion. The traffic was light and the road dry at the time, Burke added.

The car apparently drifted off the road and struck a rock ledge, Burke said. Mildbrandt was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mildbrandt was probably driving to a fish pond in the Fitchburg area, northwest of Boston, where he conducted his thesis research, said one of his two Somerville roommates, Wendy Weston.

He may have remained awake all night writing a paper, she added.

Weston and Mildbrandt's other roommate, Irene Sullivan, called Mildbrandt a nature-lover.

"He liked to be outside--camp, hike, mountain bike," Weston said.

According to Mildbrandt's mother, Mary V. Mildbrandt-Wyatt, her son graduated from the landscape school at California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo at the top of the class, but could not find a job in landscape architecture.

Mildbrandt then decided to join the Peace Corps and travel to the Czech Republic, his mother said.

Mildbrandt lived for two years in a castle in the Czech Republic, she said, where he helped design a national park bordering Austria and Germany.

"He put up with a lot of pain and hardship since no one in the village spoke English," Mildbrandt-Wyatt said. "But by the time he was ready to leave, everyone recognized him as a Czech."

He had a girlfriend in the Czech Republic, his roommates said, and he planned to return there to live.

When Mildbrandt came back to the U.S. from the Czech Republic, his mother said, he said he wanted to return to school.

"I said 'Where?' and he said, 'Harvard,' and I said, 'Holy smokes,'" Mildbrandt-Wyatt said. Mildbrandt then contacted his professors at San Luis Obispo, his mother said. "They all said, 'Go for it, Marty,'" she recalled.