Asok Kumar Ray

1948 - 2013

Asok Kumar Ray, 65, treasured husband and loving brother, uncle, professor and friend, passed away Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, at an Arlington hospital. Funeral: A private service was held Wednesday, Oct. 16, in Moore Memorial Gardens, Arlington. Arrangements were by Wade Family Funeral Home, Arlington. Asok was born in Kolkata, India, on Sept. 11, 1948. He graduated from the University of Calcutta in 1967 with a BS degree in physics. He also earned a bachelor of technology degree in radio-physics and electronics from the University of Calcutta in 1969. He received an MS in physics from Oklahoma State University in 1973, an MS in mathematics from Texas Tech University in 1975. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University in 1977 followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Florida. He came to UT-Arlington in 1982 as a visiting assistant professor in physics and joined the faculty as an assistant professor of physics in 1984. He became an associate professor in 1988 and was promoted to full professor in 1992. He held visiting appointments at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom; Technical University of Vienna, Austria; Oxford University, United Kingdom; Princeton University; and Los Alamos National Laboratory. His research interests were computational condensed matter physics, electronic structures of the actinides, material sciences, nanoscience, nanotechnology, supercomputing and parallel computing. Professor Ray received honors and awards for his scholarly achievements. He left behind his enormous research publications (nearly 200). He was very active and associated with different committees during his career at UT-Arlington. He had a very special concern for his students in his heart. Asok enjoyed novels, poetry, music and movies. One of his favorite TV shows was "Three's Company." He was very fond of nature, especially water bodies, the greens and birds. He was preceded in death by his parents, Chittaranjan and Anita Roy; sisters, Tripti Sengupta and Bharati Gupta. Survivors: Wife, Swati Ray; brother, Tapan and wife; nephews and nieces; other relatives; students; and friends.