IEEE Life Members remember Theodore (Ted) Van Duzer (1927-2023), a pioneer in Superconducting Digital Electronics.
Ted Van Duzer was born in Piscataway, NJ, in 1927. At 17, he joined the US Navy as a radio technician during the Second World War, which marked his entrée into a career in electrical engineering. With the help of the GI Bill, he earned a Bachelor’s degree at Rutgers University. Working for Hughes, he obtained a Master’s degree at UCLA and a Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, where he served on the faculty from 1961 to 2014.
An IEEE Life Fellow, Ted was internationally recognized as a pioneer in superconducting digital electronics, working closely with industry in China, Japan, and the United States. He was also a co-founder of Conductus Inc. in Sunnyvale, CA.
Ted was an active contributor to the IEEE Superconductivity Council and the Applied Superconductivity Conference and was inducted into the US National Academy of Engineering.
He was the co-author of two books: Principles of Superconductive Devices and Circuits; and Fields and Waves in Communications Electronics.
His 68-year marriage to his wife, Janice, who predeceased him, underpinned the compassion and concern that he showed for all privileged to know him, nurtured by the profound religious belief within the Van Duzer family. His support for his many graduate students, friends, and colleagues and his dedication to professional excellence was exemplary, the culmination of his lifelong adherence to the principle of ‘doing things right’.
