Professor Alfred Kwok from Pomona College, California was a visiting professor in the Tamm lab during the 2007/2008 academic year. While researching the whereabouts of Tamm Lab alumni, we discovered the sad news that professor Kwok had perished in a hiking accident in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He was an avid rock and ice climber and is remembered as a friendly and generous colleague who loved climbing also in the Blue Ridge Mountains when he was here.
From the Pomona College website:
Professor Kwok, 50, was an associate professor of physics and astronomy, and a member of Pomona’s faculty since 2000. Professor Kwok grew up in Hong Kong and came to the U.S. for college. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale University and his B.A. from UC Santa Cruz. He came to Pomona from Franklin and Marshall College, and previously served as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University Free Electron Laser Center.
Kwok was the recipient of the Becton Prize for Excellence in Engineering and Applied Science and the Optical Society of America, Newport Research Award, Finalist. Some of his research interests included microresonators/whispering gallery modes, laser spectroscopy and nonlinear optics.