Max Krook

Max Krook (1972)

Max Krook (1913 – 4 August 1985) was an American mathematician and astrophysicst.^[1]

Krook was born in Standerton, South Africa, the son of Pesach Israel Krook and Leah Krook.^[2] An undergraduate at the University of the Witwatersrand, Krook received a doctorate in mathematics from Cambridge University in England in 1938 under the supervision of Arthur Eddington.^[3] He was subsequently recruited to Birmingham University by Rudolf Peierls.^[4]

Krook came to the United States in 1950 as a research associate in physics at the Indiana University, soon moving to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was additionally appointed a research fellow at the Harvard College Observatory in 1952. In 1956, he became a lecturer in astronomy, and, in 1959, a professor in the Harvard's Division of Applied Sciences and the department of astronomy. Robert May (later, Baron May of Oxford) was one of his first postdoctoral students.^[5] Krook was for decades a regular at Cambridge's Legal Sea Foods restaurant, where a particular table was often held for him at lunchtime.^[1]

Krook married Gulielma Penn-Gaskel White, a tenth generation descendent of William Penn,^[6] 1952 graduate of Radcliffe College, and later successful photographer, in 1956. Although ultimately divorced, they continued to share a residence in Arlington, Massachusetts until the time of his death.^[7]

Krook is remembered for his contribution to the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook model.^[1]

Selected works

• Functions of a Complex Variable: Theory and Technique, by George F. Carrier, Max Krook, and Carl E. Pearson, SIAM, 2005, ISBN 0-89871-595-4 (first edition: McGraw-Hill, 1966, ISBN 0-07-010089-6).
• P. L. Bhatnagar, E. P. Gross, and M. Krook, "A Model for Collision Processes in Gases. I. Small Amplitude Processes in Charged and Neutral One-Component Systems", Phys. Rev. 94, 511-525 (1954).

References