S. A. Schelkunoff

Biography

Dr. Sergei Alexander Schelkunoff was a mathematician and electromagnetism theorist. He is known for his contributions to antenna theory.

Schelkunoff was was born on January 27, 1897 in Samara, Russia. He began his studies at the University of Moscow but was drafted in 1917. By 1921 he settled in Seattle where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from the State College of Washington (now the University of Washington). Schelkunoff received his doctoral degree in 1928 from Columbia University.

Schelkunoff joined Western Electric, which eventually became Bell Labs, after earning his PhD. He worked in the company's research department. Schelkunoff was a colleague of George Clark Southworth, the prominent radio engineer who discovered waveguide propagation. In 1933 Schelkunoff and his other colleague, Sally P. Mead, began to analyze Southworth's discovery.

Schelkunoff held 15 patents and received the 1942 Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award from the IRE and the 1949 Stuart Ballantine Medal from the Franklin Institute. He died in Hightstown, New Jersey on May 2, 1992.