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Robert H. Kraichnan

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Robert Kraichnan Obituary

KRAICHNAN--Robert H., died on February 26, 2008 at 5pm in Santa Fe, NM. He was 80 years old. Dr. Kraichnan was considered the father of modern fluid turbulence theory. He made basic contributions that dealt with the nonlinearity of turbulence and the construction of selfconsistent approximations. At the time of his death, Dr. Kraichnan was working on fundamental issues in quantum mechanics. Dr. Kraichnan received a Ph.D degree in theoretical physics from MIT in 1949. He was Albert Einstein's personal assistant 1949-1950. Later, he worked as a research scientist at Columbia and New York Universities. From 1962 until his death, Dr. Kraichnan was self-employed. He received prime grants from several Government agencies and served as consultant to a number of organizations. He was Homewood Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Dept of John Hopkins University from 2003 until his death. Dr. Kraichnan is survived by his wife, artist and photographer Judy Moore-Kraichnan, and by his former wife Carol Gebhardt, their son John Kraichnan, and granddaughter Sasha Kraichnan. Dr. Kraichnan was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received the Dirac Medal of the International Center for Theoretical Physics, the Lars Onsager Prize of the American Physical Society, the Adion Medal of l'Observatoire de Nice, and other awards.

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Published by New York Times on Feb. 29, 2008.

Memories and Condolences
for Robert Kraichnan

Sponsored by Judy Moore-Kraichnan.

14 Entries

Barbara, Richard and Benjamin Tauber

March 31, 2008

Bob was a long-time friend and beloved member of our family. As our brother-in-law we saw the personal, rather than the scientific side of Bob. Even though he was always busy with his work, he could take the time to help with family problems – aging parents, dementia related tax deficits.
When our son was diagnosed with cancer, he helped me interpret the lab reports and researched his disease and cure. Bob was instrumental in locating the best doctor to treat the cancer, and both Bob and my sister Judy together convinced us to take the long trips to Stanford to get the very best treatment possible for our son, a decision which was critical to limiting the disease. We are very grateful for their joint effort and support through our ordeal, and we will miss Bob’s educated, intelligent and generous input and outlay of time on behalf of our family.

Li-Shi Luo

March 23, 2008

Dear Judy,
You lost Bob; the world lost a great mind and a kind soul, whom we will miss forever dearly. The loss is keenly felt by all of us.

Li-Shi

Joel Lebowitz

March 18, 2008

Dear Judy,
Ann and I send our sympathy and love to you at this sad time for you and for all of us who so much cherished Bob. While Bob’s death was not unexpected, it is very sad to think that we shall not have a chance to see his smiling face again, or to walk with him along his favorite path in the woods while discussing science and politics.
Bob’s death ends a remarkable, almost unique career. Bob was the only person I know of who, in the second half of the twentieth century, made important, deep scientific contributions outside any institutional setting His only affiliation, noted in most of his scientific papers, many of them seminal to our understanding of turbulence, was Robert H. Kraichnan, Inc.. The “Inc.” organization had only one employee: Bob Kraichnan. That he dared leave the protective shield of academia is a testament to his courage – he wanted to devote himself full-time to his love of science and his love of nature. He wanted to live close to nature and to do his thinking while walking in the woods or sitting at his desk facing magnificent natural views. He didn’t want to sit in stuffy committee rooms or to engage in academic politics. That he succeeded so well is a tribute to his outstanding abilities and also to the good judgment of the agencies that recognized and funded his scientific work.
I knew Bob for about forty years, over which time he became a close and valued friend. He was a wonderful person and a wonderful scientist, too. We shall miss him greatly. Joel L. Lebowitz

Peter Vorobieff

March 12, 2008

"????? ?????????? ?????? ????! ????? ?????? ?????? ?????????!"

"What a light of intelligence has faded! What a heart has ceased to beat!"

(N.A. Nekrasov)

Charles H. Bennett

March 11, 2008

We will miss the twinkle in his eye, his quiet sense of humor, and his
scientific approach to all sorts of problems, including the tunneling
of gophers under his front yard.

Krzysztof Gawedzki

March 11, 2008

In these sad moments, I recall my encounters with Bob which, although brief, marked me as much as Bob's science.

Igor Kolokolov

March 11, 2008

His infinite fight for understanding
saved our science.

Itamar Procaccia

March 9, 2008

The loss of Bob Kraichnan is an end of an era and a generation, when science could be developed by gentlemen who were not forced to be entrepreneurs. Judy, my heart felt condolences. We will all keep Bob's memory as an example and model to be followed.

Grisha Falkovich

March 9, 2008

Bob was my teacher, role model and a constant source of inspiration. In 1993 he gave me a short unpublished note from which my work on anomalous scaling in passive scalar has started. Bob was undoubtedly the most important leader in turbulence for the last fifty years. He made turbulence an integral part of physics. I keep his photo (made by Judy) on the wall in my office. My condolences to Judy.

Joshua Akinwande

March 4, 2008

May your soul rest in perfect peace

Nobumitsu Yokoi

March 4, 2008

Bob made one of the greatest contributions in the history of turbulence research, which extended to all the research fields in turbulence of primary interest. Not limited to basic formalisms but extended to practical theories for the geo/astrophysical and plasma turbulence. Dealing with the full-nonlinearity, his formalisms were much in advance to the renormalization theories advanced in the statistical physics. It has been the greatest honor of Nobu, Yuko and Agatha to have opportunities of spending a joyful time together with Bob and Judy both in Santa Fe and Tokyo. Our thought will be with Judy and the other members of his family for long.

Roland Glowinski

March 3, 2008

Following the death of Robert Kraichnan Angela Glowinski and I offer our deepest condolences to his wife Judy, to the other members of his family, and to his collaborators. Angela had the honor to meet Robert twice in Santa Fe these last years. I have never met him but to me, he is clearly with A. Kolmogoroff the most important contributor to the mathematical theory of turbulence. A very great scientist has left us.

Donald DuBois

March 2, 2008

It has been one of the great honors in the lives of my wife Rosemary and me to be friends of Bob Kraichan and his wife Judy. Don knew Bob as a brilliant scientist and colleague. We both knew Bob as a wonderful person and as a friend.We express to Judy our deep condolences for her loss. We will keep her in our hearts and look forward to our continuing friendship.

Bill Matthaeus

March 1, 2008

My deepest sympathies to Judy, the family and all of those close to Bob. We will all miss him. His work will live on and forms the basis of much of what we do in turbulence research.

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