Dr. Kamal Kishore Seth

Dr. Kamal Kishore Seth, a distinguished professor and experimental physicist, passed away

peacefully in his sleep on January 27, 2026, at the age of 92. He was at his home in Newton,

Massachusetts, surrounded by his loving family and listening to his favorite music -- Glenn

Gould playing Bach's Goldberg Variations.

Dr. Seth was born in 1933 in Lucknow, India, to Jawahar Devi and Dr. Raj Kishore Seth, the

middle child of nine. He immigrated to the United States to pursue graduate studies in physics

and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1957, launching a career that would

span decades and leave a lasting imprint on nuclear and particle physics. After postdoctoral

work at Duke University-where he met the love of his life and future wife, Frances May

Phillips-he joined the faculty of Northwestern University in 1961, becoming a professor in the

Department of Physics and Astronomy. Over the course of his career, he became known for the

rigor of his research, the breadth of his global collaborations, and his deep commitment to

mentoring students.

His research was characterized by the pursuit of the unconventional and the exotic. Dr. Seth

was widely published and recognized for work conducted at major national and international

accelerator facilities, including Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fermilab, CERN, and Los

Alamos National Laboratory. He established key measurements using neutrons to define the

nuclear optical model, discovered exotic nuclei such as helium-9, and conducted definitive

searches for dibaryons, hybrid mesons, exotic multiquark states, and glueballs. His

experimental work also advanced the study of the fundamental structures of strongly

interacting particles in Quantum Chromodynamics -- the quarks and gluons. He was elected a

Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1972 and awarded the Humboldt Prize in Germany in

2010. At Northwestern, he founded the respected Heilborn Lecture Series, which has featured

numerous Nobel Prize winners. After 59 years at Northwestern, he retired in 2020 at the age of

87.

Kam and Frances were married in Evanston, Illinois, in 1962. Together they built a life rooted in

intellectual engagement, music, and enduring devotion to family. In addition to his love of

physics, Kam was known for his deep cultural grounding and appreciation for the arts, music,

and literature. A talented artist, he often recited poetry from memory in Hindi, Arabic, Sanskrit,

or English. His conference presentations frequently featured hand-drawn artwork or literary

references. Though untrained in music and allegedly tone-deaf, he could often identify classical

composers more quickly than Frances, a trained cellist. An enthusiastic traveler and keen

appreciator of European culture, he spent sabbaticals near Paris, in Torino, and a year in

Munich.

His early education and cultural grounding in Lucknow shaped a lifelong devotion to learning,

discipline, and intellectual rigor-an enthusiasm he generously shared with everyone around

him. He is remembered as a man of boundless energy and curiosity, exacting standards, and

tremendous joie de vivre, warmth, and character. Hard-driving yet expansive in his worldview,

he remained deeply committed to his family throughout his life.

Dr. Seth is survived by his wife, Frances; their three children, Raj (Jessica) of Newton,

Massachusetts; Kim (Sarah) of Bronxville, New York; and Camilla of Brooklyn, New York; and his

six grandchildren, Josie, Layla, Lochlan, Pierce, Finlay, and Emilia. He will be deeply missed, but

his spirit, intellect, and warmth live on in all who were privileged to know him.