Joseph Slepian

Joseph Slepian ( born February 11, 1891 in Boston, † December 19, 1969 in Swissvale, Pennsylvania) was an American mathematician and electrical engineer. He was known for theoretical developments and inventions in electrical engineering.

Slepian graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in 1911 and his doctorate in mathematics at George David Birkhoff in 1913 ( On the Functions of a Complex Variable Defined by an Ordinary Differential Equation of the First Order and First Degree ). As a post - graduate student he was at Göttingen University and the Sorbonne. 1914/15 he was instructor at Cornell University.

In 1915 Slepian was at Westinghouse Electric, where he was initially in the Department of Railway Engines, 1917 in the research department in Forest Hills (Pennsylvania) moved that he held until 1926 initiated in 1922, where he was from 1926 a consulting engineer and 1938-1956 Associate Director of Research was. He was involved in the development of over 200 patents. In 1951 he suffered a stroke.

He improved the devices in the high-voltage technology as the Ignitron, miniature circuit breakers and lightning protection. He invented the lightning arrester English auto valve. He examined the effect severe thunderstorm on high-voltage cable systems, the spread of electricity in gases and arc cathodes. In 1927 he patented the betatron acceleration of the electrons with variable magnetic fields are used. During World War II he worked on isotope enrichment with centrifuges.

He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences ( 1941). In 1947 he received the IEEE Edison Medal in 1932 and the John Scott Medal. He was an honorary doctor of the Case Institute of Technology and the University of Leeds. In 1945 he became a Fellow of the Institute of Radio Engineers.

Joseph Slepian was the father of the mathematician David Slepian.

Writings

• A series of lectures on conduction of electricity in gases, Westinghouse Electric, Educational Department in 1933