Aditya Sambamurti
 
  Aditya   Sambamurti,  an  Assistant   Physicist  at  Brookhaven  National
  Laboratory, died on  March 18, 1992 after a valiant  battle against cancer. 
  He was 31 years old. Adit graduated from Indiana University with a degree 
  in experimental  High  Energy Physics  in August  1988 and  came to BNL as 
  a Research Associate with  the Physics Electronic  Detector Group (EDG). 
  He participated in the rare kaon decay  experiment, E787, at the Alternating
  Gradient Synchrotron. 
 
  Adit was born in Washington D.C. and raised in New Delhi, India. He
  graduated with a Masters of Science in Physics from the Indian Institute 
  of Technology in 1982. In the course of his Master's Thesis work at IIT
  he helped to construct a conversion electron detector for Mossbauer 
  Spectroscopy. His primary career goal was already established by this time,
  he intended to study experimental high energy physics. He was particularly
  interested in the design and operation of particle accelerators.
 
  Aditya began graduate school in Physics at Indiana University in 1982.
  He started research with the HEP group shortly thereafter, under the
  direction of Prof. R.R. Crittenden. His PhD thesis experiment was
  a study of High transverse energy and high mass di-muon events
  in pA collisions, E672, at Fermilab.  He participated in all aspects of
  the experiment, from hardware development to the final analysis which
  in 1988 resulted in his thesis, "Event Structure of Proton-Nucleus Collisions
  with High Transverse Energy", and several publications.
 
  In his post-doctoral work Adit established a record of significant 
  accomplishment.  He made many contributions to E787, which is a search
  for K+ => pi+,nu,nubar and other rare decays.  He was instrumental
  in work on higher-level triggers and data acquisition.  He also suggested
  new physics opportunities for the detector such as the use of tagged
  pi0's from K+ => pi+,pi0 decay to search for the previously unprobed
  decay pi0 => gamma + X.  He was also one of the originators of a proposal 
  for an experiment to study total cross-sections at the
  Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). He was very imaginative and
  highly dedicated to his work. Personable, articulate and kind, he took
  pains to encourage students and younger staff.
 
  Adit was a warm and humble person.  All that met him admired his broad
  smile and his optimistic enthusiasm for life.  Adit was very active in
  the social life at Brookhaven, joining the local 
  theater group and the concert committee. He was also a founding
  member of the Toastmasters Club.              
 
  Adit was always eager to encourage cooperation among his colleagues,
  preferring it to the unforgiving competition so often practiced in the 
  community. Never too harsh in a criticism, he would rather diminish his
  own contributions than discourage someone else. He was endowed with a 
  delightful sense of humor, well supported by a broad based education. 
  Well read and ready with an appropriate quote, he was a most welcome
  partner to any conversion.  Even in his fatal illness, Adit remained 
  hopeful until the very end. Battered by numerous unsuccessful treatments,
  he was always looking forward to the chances offered by a new day.
  His courage was an inspiration to those of us who had a privilege if
  visiting him at his bedside. Adit's death was particularly tragic because 
  of his youth and his great  promise as a physicist. He is remembered and
  sorely missed by all his friends and colleagues.   He is survived by his
  parents Uma and M.K. Sambamurti, and his sister Nitya Sambamurti Ghotge.


- Mirek Fatyga, Chip Stewart and Andrzej Zieminski