In Memoriam: Kurt Bernardo Wolf, 1943-2022

May 25, 2022

Kurt Bernardo Wolf Bogner, Optica Fellow (2022) passed away on 25 May 2022 in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He was most known for his work in mathematical physics, in particular for the development of group theory in symmetry and its application to fundamental problems in quantum mechanics, nuclear physics, atomic, molecular and optical physics (AMO). Wolf was also the first director of what is now the Centro Internacional de Ciencias (CiC AC).

Wolf was encouraged by his parents from a young age to pursue his studies in the sciences. After high school, Wolf went onto the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) to become a theoretical physicist, where his thesis focused on the nuclear energy levels of fluoride-19 developed by his advisor Marco Moshinsky. After undergrad, he studied at the Weizmann Institute for Science and then transferred to Tel Aviv University to finish his PhD thesis on particle and field theories. After graduating in 1970, he lived in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he was an associate at Chalmers University. In 1971, he returned to Mexico, where he became a principal investigator at UNAM.

Before his work in optics, Wolf developed an orderly exposition of Fourier integral transforms and then wrote a book titled Integral Transforms in Science and Engineering. The volume was divided into four parts, respectively, with finite, series, integral and canonical transforms. In the early 1980s, after reading the work of Alex J. Dragt on aberration calculations for the (failed) Superconducting Supercollider, Wolf realized that the group-theoretical methods he developed would be useful for optics, including geometric, wave/quantum and discrete (pixelated) interpretations. 

In 1986, Wolf became the founding director of CiC AC at his alma mater UNAM. He remained director at UNAM until 1993, where he organized more than a dozen symposiums and conferences. By 1987, he helped found the Mexican Academy of Optics (Academia Mexicana de Óptica).

In 2022 he was elected a Fellow by Optica for his outstanding and numerous contributions to mathematical optics, including signal analysis, by employing symmetry methods known as group theory. In the same year, the Mexican Government’s National System of Researchers (SNI) honored him as Emeritus National Researcher.

Outside of optics, he enjoyed hiking, having traveled around Africa and South Asia in his youth, including Kilimanjaro. Wolf authored a book on his travels.

Optica, his students and the scientific community mourn his loss.