Dr.
Petr
|
Petr Beckmann
was born in Prague in 1924. In 1939 his family fled the
Nazi occupation to England, where he graduated from
Secondary (High) School and in 1942 joined the
Czechoslovak Air Force in the RAF. After the war he
returned to Czechoslovakia, where he obtained an M.Sc.
and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Prague Technical
University, and in 1962, a Dr.Sc. degree from the
Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. On the basis of his published papers in electromagnetics he was invited to the University of Colorado in 1963, defected to the US and remained as Professor of Electrical Engineering until his retirement in 1981. He remains the publisher and editor of the "Pro-Science, Pro-Technology, Pro-Free Enterprise" monthly newsletter Access to Energy, published regularly for some 6,000 readers since 1973. Prof. Beckmann is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and has authored over 60 scientific papers and books, such as The Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves From Rough Surfaces; his popular books include A History of Pi and The Health Hazards of Not Going Nuclear. He is fluent in Czech, English and German, and smoothly reads Russian and French; he has translated several scientific books from or to these languages. As an amateur musician, he tried his hand at the piano, violin, accordion, clarinet, bassoon in an amateur symphony orchestra, but devoted much of his life to the musical realm in which he is most proficient: listening to the works of the masters.
Dr. Beckmann passed away in August 1993, at the age of 69. |
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