Nicola N. Khuri *57

Nicola died in New York Aug. 4, 2022, at the age of 89.

Born in Beirut in 1933, Nicola earned a bachelor’s degree from the American University there and a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton in 1957.

After fellowships at Princeton, he taught at the American University of Beirut, the Institute for Advanced Study, and Columbia before joining the Rockefeller University faculty in 1964 as an associate professor. He rose to full professor in 1968.

A pioneering theoretical physicist known for using math to describe what happens when elementary particles collide in giant accelerators, Nicola’s contributions included building the foundation for potential scattering theory, which has been put to work in several important physics experiments, including at the Large Hadron Collider. He also studied the general mathematical properties of quantum field theories, which are used to describe elementary particles and their interactions, and the basic structure of matter. 

Beyond his scientific pursuits, Nicola had a talent for bringing people together and was a leader of the second Shelter Island Conference in 1983. 

Nicola is survived by his daughter, Suzanne Khuri and her husband Vijay Seshadri; his son, Nicholas Khuri ’10 and his wife Claire Landis; and three grandchildren.

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.