Kerson Huang

Who is Kerson Huang?

Kerson Huang is a Chinese-American theoretical physicist, who is currently Professor of Physics Emeritus at MIT.

Huang grew up in Manila, Philippines. He obtained a BSc and a PhD in physics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the MIT faculty in 1957, after a stint at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. At MIT, he became an authority on statistical physics, and worked on Bose–Einstein condensation and quantum field theory. Since retiring in 1999, he has written on biophysics. He is currently a visiting professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Huang is best known to Chinese readers as the translator of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám. While a graduate student in physics, he adapted Edward Fitzgerald's famous adaptation into classical Chinese verse. The book had been out of print for years, but was reprinted in Taiwan in 1989. With his wife Rosemary, he translated I Ching into English.