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Passing of Professor Emeritus in Mathematics and Medicine, John W. Evans

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of John W. Evans, professor emeritus of mathematics and medicine, who passed away peacefully at his home in Jamul, California, on Sunday, August 20, 2017. Evans was 82.

Born in Mt. Vernon, New York, in 1935, Evans arrived at UC San Diego in 1968 with a joint appointment in the Department of Mathematics and the School of Medicine. His research areas included nerve axon equations, pulmonary gas exchange and assorted applied mathematics problems. His research publications are available at Research Gate: http://bit.ly/2gKtIrj. He retired from UC San Diego in 1994.

Evans was an undergraduate at the University of Alabama where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity. He received his M.D. from Cornell Medical School in 1958, interned at the New York Hospital and completed a residency in neurology at the Bellevue and New York Hospitals in 1962. Evans then served as a fellow at UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute and transferred to UCLA's graduate program in the Department of Mathematics. His thesis advisor was Dr. Don Babbit, and Dr. Raja Vardarajan served on his thesis committee. During graduate school, Evans worked at IBM's Western Data Processing Center located at UCLA. After receiving his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1966, Evans and his family moved to Bethesda, Maryland, where for two years he was in the Mathematical Research Branch in the National Institutes of Health and served in the Commissioned Officer Corps of the Public Health Service. Upon completion of his military service in 1968, he joined UC San Diego.

Evans is survived by his wife Cynthia; his son Wynne Evans and his spouse Midori Evans, and their daughter Mayu Evans; daughter Elizabeth Evans and her daughter Fran Hodgins, and Elizabeth Evans’ spouse Susan Manners; his sisters Celeste Burnum and Carol Crowe; and his brothers, Dr. Rele Evans and Dr. Harry Evans and their families.

Those wishing to honor Evans’ memory are asked by the family to donate to the California State Parks Foundation: https://tinyurl.com/y8j6lozf

Steven Boggs Dean Division of Physical Sciences Lei Ni Professor and Chair Department of Mathematics