George Csanak

Physicist George Csanak passed away in Thousand Oaks, California, on 22 February 2023.

Born in Hungary on 1 August 1941, George was a curious and exceptionally talented child. In 1959, he graduated from high school and won first prize in mathematics in the International Science Olympiad. In 1964, he graduated from the Kossuth Lajos University of Debrecen with a scientific medal in upper-level education from the Hungarian Department of Education and joined the department of theoretical physics as a lecturer. In 1968, he became a visiting scientist at the University of Southern California, where he received a PhD in theoretical chemistry in 1971. He stayed there as a postdoctoral fellow until 1973.

In 1974, he moved to the State University of Campinas, Brazil, first as a free docent and later as an associate professor. He stayed there until 1980. He arrived in Campinas at the time when a new group of scientists formed the department of quantum electronics at the Institute of Physics. He was one of the scientists coming there from research institutions around the world. George immersed himself in the new setting with enthusiasm. He immediately attracted students and created a very active group. At Campinas, he taught undergraduate students, advised graduate students working for their PhDs, and collaborated with scientists in Brazil and in international research institutions active in theoretical atomic and molecular physics. He received grants from NSF in the US and from FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) and CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) in Brazil. He was an outstanding teacher and very generous with his students, frequently sending them abroad to get the best opportunities for improving their professional lives.

In 1982, he returned to the US as a staff scientist at the Barnes Engineering Company and became a US citizen. At the same time, he began a consultantship for the low-energy electron collision group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, providing guidance for the design and interpretation of various experiments. He remained a collaborator for the rest of his life. In 1983, he accepted a staff position in the atomic-physics group of the theoretical division at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and he remained there until his retirement in 2005. During his retirement years, he kept active collaborations with several of his colleagues as a Los Alamos visiting scientist.

George’s multiple mathematical and scientific talents allowed him to make seminal discoveries in a vast range of fields, including electron and proton scattering from atoms and molecules, photon absorption in dense plasmas, properties of micron-sized clusters, atom-cavity laser systems, and ultrafast laser field interactions. George was an expert in many-body quantum theory, and he authored numerous papers on the subject. His mathematics was at a very high level; it took quite an effort to follow through his papers. In 1995, he was awarded the status of fellow in the American Physical Society for the development of many-body Green function techniques of bound-state and scattering properties of atomic and molecular systems.

After retirement, in addition to scientific research, he put greater attention to studies in philosophy, Japanese theater, and modern poetry. He interacted with some of his friends of similar interests, who called him a modern-day Renaissance man. George will be missed by his family, friends, and colleagues. George is survived by his wife Nobuko.

Obituaries are made available as a service to the physical sciences community and are not commissioned by Physics Today. Submissions are lightly edited for grammar and style. Click here for guidelines on submitting an obituary. If you are a copyright holder who thinks that an obituary violates your copyright, please contact us .