Dr. Krishan Kumar Chawla attended the only top institute to offer an undergraduate degree in metallurgy Banaras Hindu University (BHU, now the Indian Institute of Technology BHU). He was the first member of his family to go abroad, when he received a full scholarship to do his PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). His time at UIUC molded him in many different ways.

Through his PhD work on Tungsten fiber/Copper metal matrix composites, he began to develop a life-long love for composite materials and mechanical behavior.

In the late 60s they decided to move to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Krish started a position at the Instituto Militar de Engenharia (IME), a premier engineering institute. He built the mechanical metallurgy program into the premier location for materials in Latin America.

In the mid-80s he returned to Urbana to spend a sabbatical at UIUC. The plan was to return to Brazil, but an offer came from a small, rigorous engineering school in New Mexico, called New Mexico Tech. At Tech he enjoyed working with sharp engineering students, the beautiful weather and landscape of the southwest, as well as walking to work. After over a decade in Socorro, NM, Krish went to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He spent over two decades in Birmingham, including serving as department chair of the Mechanical and Materials Engineering department, and eventually achieving Emeritus status.

Krish wrote pioneering textbooks which are part of almost every materials engineering student's education. He was the first to write a book that covered all types of composites metal, ceramic, and polymer matrix composites. His book on the Mechanical Behavior of Materials, now its third edition, is a staple of every undergraduate, graduate student, and professional working in the area around the world.

He was editor of International Materials Reviews (IMR) and grew the journal's quality and impact over many years. He won many international awards including being Fellow of ASM international, the TMS Educator Award, Distinguished Alumnus Award from BHU, and the Distinguished Researcher Award from New Mexico Tech.

He had friends and colleagues all over the world and spent many sabbaticals and visiting professorships, including at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin. Within the US, he spent sabbaticals at UIUC, Northwestern University where he was the Eshbach Society Distinguished Visiting Scholar, and Arizona State University.

He is survived by his wife Nivedita, a son, a daughter,  four grandsons, a sister and a brother.