In Memoriam

The Department of Physics sadly learned of the passing of two members of our Gator community: Professor John Klauder and alumnus Dr. Karthik Hari Shankar. Our community joins their families and friends in mourning their loss.

Professor John Klauder (1932-2024) joined the faculty in UF’s Department of Mathematics and Department of Physics in 1989, rising to the rank of Distinguished Professor in 2006, which he held until his retirement in 2011. He was Distinguished Professor Emeritus in retirement and continued to engage with the UF Institute of Fundamental Theory; as recently as 2023 he give a talk on his innovative work in quantum gravity.

Professor Klauder left an indelible mark on the scientific landscape through his work. After earning his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1959, he developed the concept of “coherent states,” establishing a groundbreaking bridge between classical and quantum physics and laying foundations for quantum optics, Feynman path integrals, and wavelet theory. During a career at AT&T Bell Labs that spanned over three decades, he led the Theoretical Physics and Solid State Spectroscopy Departments and pioneered the development of radar technologies, particularly the “chirp pulse compression” method. This method remains a staple of modern radar and sonar systems.

Dr. Karthik Hari Shankar (1979-2023), a UF Ph.D. alumnus, passed away at the age of 44 years. Dr. Shankar completed his Ph.D. in 2007 with his dissertation, “Black Hole Evaporation: Validity of Quasi-Static Approximation,” under the guidance of Professor Bernard Whiting. His research focus then 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 Ph.D. in Physics at UF in 2006.