Remembering physics alum Karthik Shankar

Dr. Karthik Hari Shankar passed away suddenly from natural causes on September 5, 2023. He was 44 years old. Dr. Shankar completed his PhD in 2007 on “Black Hole Evaporation: Validity of Quasi-Static Approximation” under the guidance of Bernard Whiting at UF Physics.  His research interest moved into understanding the neural basis of human cognition and constructing optimal learning algorithms for intelligent systems.  Dr. Shankar lived in Boston with his life partner, Dr. Aparna Baskaran, who also completed her PhD in UF Physics in 2006.  Shankar’s collaborator, Dr. Mark Howard of Boston University, has written this piece in appreciation of Karthik and his work.