Sergei Alexander Schelkunoff

Schelkunoff was born in Samara, Russia in 1897, attended the University of Moscow before being drafted in 1917. He crossed Siberia into Manchuria and then Japan before settling in Seattle in 1921. There he received bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from the State College of Washington, now Washington State University, and in 1928 received his Ph.D. from Columbia University for his dissertation On Certain Properties of the Metrical and Generalized Metrical Groups in Linear Spaces of {{mvar|n}} Dimension.

After receiving his degree, Schelkunoff joined Western Electric's research wing, which became Bell Laboratories. In 1933 he and Sally P. Mead began analysis of waveguide propagation discovered analytically by their colleague George C. Southworth. Their analysis uncovered the transverse modes. Schelkunoff appears to have been the first to notice the important practical consequences of the fact that attenuation in the TE01 mode decays inversely with the {{frac|3|2}} power of the frequency. In 1935 he and his colleagues reported that coaxial cable, then new, could transmit television pictures or up to 200 telephone conversations.

During his 35 year career at Bell Labs, Schelkunoff's research included radar, electromagnetic wave propagation in the atmosphere and in microwave guides, short-wave radio, broad-band antennas, and grounding. He taught for five years at Columbia University, and later served as assistant director of mathematical research and assistant vice president for university relations. He retired from Columbia U. in 1965, and served as a consultant on magnetrons for the United States Naval Station at San Diego.

Schelkunoff received 15 patents, the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award from the Institute of Radio Engineers (1942), and the Franklin Institute's Stuart Ballantine Medal (1949). He died on 2 May 1992, in Hightstown, New Jersey.

• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1934 |title=The electromagnetic theory of coaxial transmission lines and cylindrical shields |journal=Bell Labs Technical Journal |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=532–579 |doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1934.tb00679.x}}
• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |date=November 1937 |title=Electromagnetic waves in conducting tubes |journal=Physical Review |volume=52 |issue=10 |page=1078 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.52.1078|bibcode=1937PhRv...52.1078S }}
• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1939 |title=On diffraction and radiation of electromagnetic waves |journal=Physical Review |volume=56 |issue=4 |page=308 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.56.308|bibcode=1939PhRv...56..308S }}
• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1943 |title=A mathematical theory of linear arrays |journal=Bell Labs Technical Journal |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=80–107 |doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1943.tb01306.x}}
• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1943 |title=The impedance of a transverse wire in a rectangular wave guide |journal=Quarterly of Applied Mathematics |volume=1 |pages=78–85 |doi=10.1090/qam/8051 |mr=8051 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1944 |title=Impedance concept in wave guides |journal=Quarterly of Applied Mathematics |volume=2 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1090/qam/11833 |mr=11833 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1944 |title=Proposed symbols for the modified cosine and exponential integrals |journal=Quarterly of Applied Mathematics |volume=2 |page=90 |doi=10.1090/qam/10012 |mr=10012 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1944 |title=On waves in bent pipes |journal=Quarterly of Applied Mathematics |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=171–172 |doi=10.1090/qam/10690 |mr=10690 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1944 |title=On the antenna problem |journal=Quarterly of Applied Mathematics |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=354–355 |doi=10.1090/qam/99998 |url=http://www.ams.org/journals/qam/1944-01-04/S0033-569X-1944-99998-9/S0033-569X-1944-99998-9.pdf |access-date=2023-01-23}}
• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1946 |title=Solution of linear and slightly nonlinear differential equations |journal=Quarterly of Applied Mathematics |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=348–355 |doi=10.1090/qam/14549 |mr=14549 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1955 |title=Conversion of Maxwell's equations into generalized telegraphist's equations |journal=Bell Labs Technical Journal |volume=34 |issue=5 |pages=995–1043 |doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1955.tb03787.x}}

• {{cite book |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1943 |title=Electromagnetic waves |place=New York, NY |publisher=D. van Nostrand Company}}{{cite journal |author=le Corbeiller, P. |author-link=Philippe Le Corbeiller |date=October 1943 |title=Review of Electromagnetic Waves by S.A. Schelkunoff |journal=Bell System Technical Journal |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=393–396 |doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1943.tb00448.x |url=https://archive.org/details/bstj22-3-393}}
• {{cite book |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1948 |title=Applied Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists |place=New York, NY |publisher=D. van Nostrand Company}}{{cite journal |last=Yates |first=John T. Jr. |date=1966-01-01 |title=Applied mathematics for engineers and scientists (Schelkunoff, Sergei A.) |journal=Journal of Chemical Education |volume=43 |issue=1 |page=A78 |doi=10.1021/ed043pA78.1 |bibcode=1966JChEd..43...78Y |issn=0021-9584 }}
• {{cite book |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1952 |title=Advanced Antenna Theory |place=New York, NY |publisher=John Wiley & Sons}}{{cite journal |author=Smith, R.A. |date=5 September 1952 |title=Review of Advanced Antenna Theory by Sergei A. Schelkunoff |journal=Science |volume=116 |issue=3010 |page=264 |doi=10.1126/science.116.3010.264 |bibcode=1952Sci...116..264G}}
• {{cite book |author1=Schelkunoff, S.A. |author2=Friis, H.T. |author2-link=Harald T. Friis |year=1952 |title=Antennas: Theory and practice |series=Bell Telephone Laboratories |place=New York, NY |publisher=John Wiley & Sons}}
• {{cite book |author=Schelkunoff, S.A. |year=1963 |title=Electromagnetic Fields |publisher=Blaisdell Publishing Company / A Division of Random House}}{{cite journal |author=Mielenz, K.D. |title=Review of Electromagnetic Fields by S.A. Schelkunoff |journal=American Journal of Physics |year=1964 |volume=32 |issue=9 |pages=717–718 |doi=10.1119/1.1970970 |bibcode=1964AmJPh..32R.717S}}

• {{US patent|2372228}} – Ultra short wave radio system – Bell Laboratories

• List of textbooks in electromagnetism

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• {{cite news |first=Bruce |last=Lambert |date=17 May 1992 |title=S.A. Schelkunoff, 95, researcher and developer of coaxial cable |type=obituary |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/17/nyregion/s-a-schelkunoff-95-researcher-and-developer-of-coaxial-cable.html}}
• {{cite book |first=John |last=Bray |year=2002 |title=Innovation and the Communications Revolution |publisher=The Institution of Electrical Engineers |pages=220–221 |isbn=0-85296-218-5}}
• {{cite journal |title=Sergei Alexander Schelkunoff |journal=IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques |volume=5 |number=3 |page=172 |date=July 1957|doi=10.1109/TMTT.1957.1125132 }}
• {{cite web |title=Schelkunoff |series=Social Security information |website=RootsWeb |url=http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi?lastname=Schelkunoff&firstname=&nt=exact}}

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Category:1897 births

Category:1992 deaths

Category:Scientists from Samara, Russia

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Category:Russian military personnel of World War I

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Category:Microwave engineers

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Category:Moscow State University alumni

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Category:Scientists at Bell Labs