James Kelly, an experimental nuclear physicist at the university, passed away Saturday at age 52.

Kelly was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma more than two decades ago and died of blood cancer, which he developed from his treatment.

“Jim was a brilliant man and one of the most outstanding physicists I have had the pleasure to be associated with,” said Bill Bertozzi, Kelly’s thesis adviser at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “From the early days as a graduate student he always impressed me. We shall miss him greatly as a scientist and as a very fine human being who managed all adversity with such great equanimity and humanity.”

Kelly, a recipient of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Fellowship, played softball with his physics colleagues and was a trombonist with the university band.

His students, as well as his colleagues, said they were mesmerized by his ability to understand the complex computer program Mathematica, an application he focused on in his textbook on mathematical physics.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in the department who knows it as well as he did,” said physics senior physics major Tom Langford. “You could tell he had a true love of what he did.”

Langford, who took several courses with Kelly, said that even when the professor was sick, he remained committed to his work and his students.

“The overriding impression I got from him was just dedication,” he said. “He would often come in and look like he was on his last leg, yet she still made an effort to come to class.”

“If you sent him an e-mail, he still got back to you. I got the impression that he was sending e-mails from his hospital bed.”

“He was a really tough guy,” said professor Nicholas Chant, one of Kelly’s colleagues in the physics department. When he was sick, “he’d just come in and teach his course.”

Kelly is survived by his wife, Melinda, his daughter, Colleen and his three brothers, Dennis, Daniel and Edward.

Funeral services will be held today at 10:30 a.m. at the Robert Evans Funeral Home, 16000 Annapolis Road, Bowie, Md.

Contact reporter Nathan Cohen at cohendbk@gmail.com.