Dr. Francisc C. Schwarz

Obituary



Dr. Francisc C. Schwarz, 69
Professor and Consultant

A memorial service was conducted at 1 PM on Friday the 24th in Lincoln for Dr. Francisc. C. Schwarz, who died on Monday, February 20, at the Newton-Wellesley Nursing Home.

 

Born in Cernauti, Romania, on February 22, 1914, he received his undergraduate education in electrical engineering at the Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, his M.S.E.E. degree from Columbia University, New York, NY, in 1956, and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, in 1965.

 

Dr. Schwarz contributed to the early phases of magnetics semiconductor hybrid technology as an independent consulting engineer in New York, and as a consulting electrical engineer at the Advanced Electronics Center of the General Electric Company at Cornell University until 1965.

 

He then joined the NASA Electronics Research Center, Cambridge, MA, and organized the Power Systems Laboratory as its Chief. He performed and directed ERC's research in the area of power electronics for air and spacecraft, including nonorthodox processes of energy conversion, systems analysis processing, and components of power electronics. He was a member of the Advisory Committee for NASA's Research on electric power and chairman of the Power Conditioning Panel of the Interagency Advanced Power Group of concerned U.S. Government agencies.

 

In 1971, he was appointed the position of Ordinary Professor and later voted Chairman of the newly established Laboratory for Power Electronics at the Delft University of Technology. His primary activity was modernization of electrical power engineering by application and extension of control and system theory to the field of solid-state power electronics. The results of his work on efficient multikilowatt a.c. and d.c. converters employing multikilowatt a.c. and d.c. converters employing multikilohertz frequencies, are contained in numerous U.S. and foreign publications and patents.

 

Dr. Schwarz was also a consultant and contractor for the U.S. Government. In June, 1983, Dr. Schwarz received the IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award for Outstanding Achievement in Power Electronics

 

Source: Power Electronics Society Historical Archive 0000 0001