Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Very saddened to learn of Stu's passing. He was a terrific mentor to me when I worked with him in the MRL at PSU back in 89-92. He was a superb scientist and engineer with a broad curiosity about how the world worked and was an expert about color and optics. His 'Kurtz Powder SHG method' is still widely adopted for testing the frequency doubling of laser light by non-centric crystalline powders. His background PhD Physics from Ohio State was quite different from my Chemistry training in England, but I learned a lot from him including the crafting and writing research proposals. He helped me get my academic job here at HKUST in Hong Kong and was a very decent, kind and honorable man, so generous of his time and sharing his insights. I owe him much.
Ian D. Williams
Professor and Head
Chemistry, HKUST
(chwill@ust.hk)
