James Corones

1945 - 2017

James Corones

Annapolis

On Friday, April 28, 2017, James (Jim) Peter Corones, 13-year resident of Annapolis, MD, passed away, succumbing to complications from his 2 ½ year battle with paraneoplastic Stiff Person Syndrome due to SCLC. He is survived his wife of 30 years, Lou Lamb Corones, by the pride and joy of his life, his sons, Michael John Corones of Brooklyn Heights, New York, and Matthew John Corones of Ames, Iowa, and by the mother of his sons, Kathy Corones of Ames, Iowa.

Jim was born 9/15/45 in East Orange, NJ, and grew up in upper New York state. He graduated with a Sc.B. in Physics from Brown University and received his Ph.D. in Physics from Boston University. He was an academic grandson of Albert Einstein and a Fulbright Scholar. In 1973, after a Post-Doc at the University of Calgary, Jim was hired by Iowa State University as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. In 1982, Jim was promoted to Professor. During his time at ISU, he taught math, joined and then directed the Applied Mathematics program within Ames Laboratory, an ISU managed Department of Energy facility, a legacy of the Manhattan Project. He also collaborated extensively with researchers across the world, as a twice recipient of National Academy of Sciences Exchange Scientist, as invited speaker/scholar and as host to foreign researchers. He mentored several Post Docs and Ph.D. candidates during his tenure at ISU. In addition to these activities, he also served in other administrative posts, including program director of environmental technology development, deputy director and, also, acting director of the Lab. During Jim's scientific career, he conducted research in linear and nonlinear wave propagation, including extensive work in acoustic and electromagnetic inverse scattering. Funding agencies included by DOE, ONR, AFOSR and NSF. Also, he served on many editorial and advisory boards.

In 1997, Jim founded Krell Institute in Ames, Iowa. Krell is a non-profit organization designed to promote the education of superior scientists for the US workforce. These scientists can help assure that the United States will continue to be a world leader in as many disciplines as possible. Computational Science, a discipline that Jim was instrumental in establishing, High-Performance Computing and National Nuclear Safety are among the areas of Krell's educational and informational focus. Completely confident that Krell's future was safe with its current leadership, guidance and, above all, dedicated staff, he retired in December of 2016,

In his personal and professional life, Jim was acknowledged as an eclectic man, with a penchant for high energy, zest, and humor. His intellect and his interests ranged wide: jazz, blues & classical music; ancient Greek coins and antiquities; football, baseball and basketball; national and international politics and political history; science education and national science policy; religious and philosophical underpinnings of Western thought, history and art of Magna Graecia and the Near East; gardening; fishing; poetry and literature; history of the 20th century, particularly of Eastern Europe and life behind the Iron Curtain; golf; visual arts such as painting, sculpture and film, including classic science fiction and film noir; fossil and rock hunting and polishing; live theater; Melville, Dante and Blake. The list goes on. When he decided to learn about something, he delved deep. This trait was with him throughout his entire life.

He is predeceased by his sister, Elizabeth Corones, his father, John G. Corones, his mother, Virginia Linder Corones Jehu, and his grandmother, Elizabeth Linder. After cremation at George P. Kalas Funeral Home in Edgewater, MD, his ashes will be interred at the East Greenbush Cemetery in East Greenbush, New York. A brief graveside service will take place at 4 pm on May 20, 2017.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the work of Peter Scardino, Surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, www.mskcc.org, to the research of Russell Hales, Radiation Oncologist, and to the research of Scott Newsome, Neurologist, both of Johns Hopkins Medicine, www.hopkinsmedicine.org. A scholarship /award will also be established in his name through Krell Institute, www.krellinst.org.