Max Krook

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

Max Krook (1972)

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, 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.[6]

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