Kerson Huang, Chinese-born American theoretical physicist, Died at 88

  Reseacher

Kerson Huang was born on Huáng Kèsūn on March 15, 1928, in Nanning, China and died on September 1, 2016.

He was a Chinese American theoretical physicist and translator.

Huang was raised in Manila, Philippines.

Huang earned a B.S. and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1950 and 1953, respectively.

Kerson served as an instructor at MIT from 1953 to 1955 and subsequently spent two years as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Following his return to the MIT faculty in 1957, Huang became an authority on statistical physics and worked on Bose–Einstein condensation and quantum field theory.

When he retired in 1999, Huang wrote on biophysics and was also a visiting professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

He was best known to Chinese readers as the translator of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam; while a graduate student in physics, he adapted Edward FitzGerald’s famous adaptation into Classical Chinese verse.

The book (Chinese: 魯拜集) has not been printed for years but was reprinted in Taiwan in 1989.

Along with his wife Rosemary, Huang also translated the ancient divination text I Ching into English.

Kerson Huang passed away at 88 years old.