Leopold B. Felsen, 81; Was Expert on Properties of Various Wave Types

Leopold B. Felsen, 81, an expert on the properties of electromagnetic, acoustic, water and other waves, died Sept. 24 in Boston of complications after surgery. He had suffered from muscular dystrophy for 30 years.

A native of Munich, Germany, Felsen immigrated to the U.S. in 1940 to escape Nazi persecution of Jews. He served in the U.S. Army in the Philippines during World War II, and earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now Polytechnic University), where he taught until 1994. Felsen spent his final decade teaching at Boston University.

A prolific author, Felsen wrote a number of books, including, with Nathan Marcuvitz, the electromagnetism textbook “Radiation and Scattering of Waves,” which is considered one of the most significant works of its kind. Felsen’s physics research aided progress in such areas as radar, antennas and land-mine detection.

The professor also wrote poems, including “Raves About Waves: We Can’t Do Without Them,” published in a magazine of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the recent “Evanescent Professors” about his own mortality, ending with: “For those of us who deal with Waves, We do not fade, we Evanesce.”