Dr. Shu Qian is an Alliance scientist who is researching artificial intelligence. He is the project leader at the Sidon facility in 2165. According to Kahlee Sanders, Qian is working on a newly-discovered alien artifact that might even have pre-dated the Protheans, but the research changes him. Qian gradually becomes more irrational until he is obsessed with the work. Kahlee becomes suspicious and copies several of his files, then leaves Sidon just before it is attacked by the Blue Suns. Qian disappears after the attack on Sidon and his whereabouts are unknown.