Remembering Professor Emeritus James Beyer

James “Jim” Beyer passed away on December 6, 2023 at the age of 92.  He was an emeritus professor within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Born in Horicon, Wisconsin, Beyer studied electrical engineering and received his Bachelor’s (1957), Master’s (1959) and Doctorate (1961) degrees at UW–Madison.

Beyer joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering in 1961 and quickly progressed from part-time instructor to assistant professor.  His interests in the field of electrical engineering included radio communications, electromagnetic theory, antennas, and microwave circuits.  He taught several courses in the area of microwave circuits and introduced a new course that included the design of communications systems in the microwave region. 

One of Beyer’s early tasks on campus was to set up a microwave laboratory for research in the new area of microwave plasma interaction.  From August 1968 to August 1969, he traveled to Braunschweig, Germany where he was a Fulbright lecturer on the topic of microwave semiconductor devices.  This experience encouraged Beyer to pursue industrial partnerships in the electromagnetic-theory program.  He established several research programs in the 1970’s with Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, Sandia Laboratories, and Honeywell. 

Chief Technology Officer at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Dr. James Thompson (BS’85, MS’87, PhD’91) remembered Professor Beyer with high regard, “I would describe my time as Professor Beyer’s grad student as transformational.” Thompson added, “I know I speak for many of Professor Beyer’s former students that he was one of the great influences on our lives.  He was smart, humble and a great mentor and teacher.  He is one of the people I modeled my own life after.”