August 14, 2024
Remembered for humor, love of sports, and patient but rigorous mentorship
Gene Mazenko, Professor Emeritus in UChicago’s Department of Physics, the James Franck Institute, and the College, who focused on phase transitions and hydrodynamics of magnets, fluids, liquid crystals, and glasses, died in Antioch, CA, on July 7. He was 79.
Mazenko spent his career working with classical field theory techniques, studying tough problems in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The throughline of his work was understanding how fluctuations and disorder led to unexpected physics phenomena.
“He pioneered a powerful theoretical way of approaching a series of questions that had a great impact not only in his subfield of condensed matter physics but more generally to other areas of physics,” said Sidney Nagel, the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor in UChicago’s Department of Physics.
“Gene had a great instinct for knowing where the exciting problems lay among the many physical systems and models in the world of time-dependent statistical mechanics,” said Sriram Ramaswamy, PhD’83, Honorary Professor of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science and one of Mazenko’s former students. “He wasn’t given to quick hand-waving arguments though; he loved technique and hard calculational detail.”
“A born leader”
Mazenko was born July 5, 1945, in the small coal-mining town of Coalport, PA, and moved with his family to a small city east of Los Angeles when he was eight. In high school, he excelled equally in academics, where he was a member of the Math Club, and in sports, playing baseball (third base) and football (quarterback), becoming captain of both teams.
Mazenko received his BS from Stanford University in 1967 and his PhD from MIT in 1971, where he applied classical field theory techniques to the problem of sound attenuation in a dilute gas. As a postdoctoral research associate at Brandeis in 1971–72, he developed Fully Renormalized Kinetic Theory or FRKT, a modern approach to kinetic theory using operator methods. He then collaborated with researchers at Harvard and MIT to further develop these techniques in 1972–73 before returning to Stanford for a final postdoctoral fellowship to study the critical dynamics of isotropic ferromagnets.
Mazenko arrived at the University of Chicago in December 1974, where he applied the techniques developed earlier in his career to study the dynamics of glassy systems, nonlinear hydrodynamics, vortices, and liquid crystals.
“Gene Mazenko was a born leader—both in his physics and administrative capacity,” said Nagel. “Gene, more than anyone else, helped rebuild the condensed matter effort at UChicago. Both as a member of this group and as the Director of the James Franck Institute for six years, he was instrumental in hiring so many of our colleagues who are still here today.”
His leadership expanded beyond the Physical Sciences Division. From 1992 to 1995, Mazenko served as Special Assistant to the Provost and then as Associate Provost. During that time, he oversaw the University library system, campus-wide computing resources, and research administration.
When Mazenko returned to teaching and research, he focused on the theory of the growth of order in quenched systems and the kinetics of fluid systems. In the early 2000s, he wrote a series of graduate-level textbooks: Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics, Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics, and Fluctuations, Order and Defects. This work led him to develop a new fundamental theory of strongly interacting particle systems, which he applied to liquid-to-glass transitions. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 2015.
Independent thinkers
Mazenko trained many graduate students and postdocs who went on to positions worldwide and who continue to use the skills and knowledge they learned under his mentorship.
Robert Wickham, PhD’97, an associate professor in physics at the University of Guelph, highlights Mazenko’s significant impact on his career: “Gene took seriously the idea at Chicago that the thesis work should be the student’s alone.” He appreciated Mazenko’s hands-off approach for students’ final PhD years, which fostered independent research skills.
David McCowan, PhD’14, a laboratory instructor in UChicago’s Physics Department, recalls that “Gene was no-nonsense. He spoke his mind and would be forceful when needed.” Initially intimidated by Gene’s seriousness, McCowan soon discovered a patient, kind, and warm mentor, with “a dry sense of humor and a deadpan delivery that was so subtle you could miss the joke until it hit you a few minutes later.”
Shankar Prasad Das, PhD’86, professor of physics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, emphasizes Mazenko’s commitment to doing science on his own terms. “He took utmost care in this process, spared no effort, and lacked no energy to fully grasp what was being said,” said Das. “After going through that, when he took a stand, he would stand firm. And he was never hesitant to stand alone!”
“Gene expected the best from his colleagues and students,” said Woowon Kang, UChicago professor of physics. “But while he held himself and others to high standards, he was practical enough to make compromises when necessary.”
Lifelong pursuits
While Mazenko was distinctly dedicated to his academic career, his interests beyond science are well remembered. Mazenko was a long-distance runner, competing in the Chicago Marathon, and a dutiful fan of the Chicago Bears and Bulls, as well as the Celtics, from when he lived near Boston. Das recalls attending the 2015 symposium in honor of Mazenko’s retirement, when his former mentor told Das’s son, “Unlike your father, I hope you take an interest in sports,” before discussing cricket.
He loved movies and a broad range of music types, including classical and rock, specifically the Beach Boys and Steely Dan, according to his sister. Wickham recalls Mazenko listening to Enya in his office.
“Gene spent his life doing what he loved,” said nephew Mark Mazenko. “I hope the same can be said of me and of us all.”
Mazenko was preceded in death by his parents, Edward Andrew Stanislaus Mazenko and Margaret Dawn (Jeffries) Mazenko, and his wife, Judith Oakley Mazenko. He is survived by siblings Donald “Edward” Mazenko, Darrel John Mazenko, and Deborah Ann (Mazenko) Jeffries; 10 nieces and nephews; and 74 first cousins.