Obituaries

Recent Obituaries
In Memoriam Archive

Jay Collins ’15

April 4, 2020, in Olympia, Washington.

Physics scholar and artist, Jay was born in Seattle and moved to Olympia, Washington, with his family in 2001. He attended Lincoln Elementary, Marshall Alternative Program, and Avanti High School.

A physics major at Reed, he wrote his thesis, “Using the Photon Wave Function to Compute Behavior of Single Photon Wave Packets Traveling through Linear Material Interfaces,” with Prof. Joel Franklin ’97 [physics 2005–] advising. He enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Oregon to study quantum optics in the fall of 2015, but had to drop out for medical reasons.

Thoughtful, with a quick wit, Jay cared about the world and social justice. He loved physics, philosophy, math, history, painting, cooking, and hiking. He is survived by his parents, Mark Collins and Kathy Pruitt.

Appeared in Reed magazine: December 2020

comments powered by Disqus