Boris J. Kayser ’60

Boris, our valedictorian, graduated from nearby Lakewood (N.J.) High School, laden with science honors. His Westinghouse Science Talent Award was the most significant, not only for its prestige but also because he met fellow co-winner Susan Zimet. With us, he majored in physics, participated in the music and math clubs and Whig-Clio, and added to his skein of physics awards.

He and Susan married in 1960 and went together to Caltech. He earned a Ph.D. in particle physics in 1965 as Susan studied astronomy. Two post-doctoral years at UC Berkeley, three at SUNY at Stony Brook, and two more at Northwestern led to the National Science Foundation, serving as program director for theoretical physics from 1972 to 2001.

At NSF, Boris helped establish the prestigious Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC-Santa Barbara and began a broader study of the “ghost particle” neutrinos. He also wrote the definitive The Physics of Massive Neutrinos.

After retiring from the NSF in 2001, Boris became a distinguished guest scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and continued to lead the study of neutrinos, both theoretical and experimental. He retired from Fermilab at the end of 2012.

Boris died April 14, 2024, of complications of a fall. He is survived by his fellow scientist, Susan, to whom we send our deepest sympathies.