Kailash Kumar was born in Uttar Pradash, India, on 24 November 1933 and died in Sydney on 30 August 2012. He graduated BSc from Agra University and MSc from Allahabad University before obtaining a Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake a PhD at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. His supervisor was Melvin Preston and he obtained a PhD from McMaster University in 1956 at the early age of 22. Following his PhD, Kailash was a lecturer at McGill University, Montreal, Canada and then an Assistant Professor at Purdue University, USA, for about 12 months on each occasion. He then returned to India, where he became a Visiting Fellow at the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, then under the directorship of Homi Bhabba, for two years, 1958-60.

In 1960, at David Peaslee’s suggestion, he came to the Department of Theoretical Physics, Research School of Physical Sciences, as a Visiting Fellow. During this period he completed his book entitled ‘Perturbation Theory and the Nuclear Many Body Problem’, published by North Holland, Amsterdam in 1962. Following a brief return to India, he was appointed in 1963 as a Fellow in the same department. Kailash was promoted to Senior Fellow in 1967 and remained a valued staff member of the Department of Theoretical Physics until his retirement in 1996. From 1997 until 2009 Kailash continued to contribute to the Department as a Visiting Fellow.

During Kailash’s membership of the Department of Theoretical Physics, he worked and made important contributions to several many body problems involving atomic nuclei and particle transport equations by the application of kinetic theory and other mathematical methods. For many years he was a member of the editorial board of the journal ‘Transport Theory and Statistical Physics’, published by Taylor and Francis.

Many members of the Research School are saddened by the rather sudden passing of Kailash, a humble and kind person, who will always be missed.

Mukunda Das and Brian Robson,

Theoretical Physics