Professor Ivor Ramsay Smith

Our father Professor Ivor Ramsay Smith served in numerous senior roles at Loughborough University during a distinguished academic career. He was a world expert in pulsed power, authouring or contributing to over 450 technical papers, and was an independent member of the MoD’s Defence Scientific Advisory Council (DSAC).

Born in Birmingham in 1929, he left school aged 15 to follow in the footsteps of his father Howard, working at the General Electric Company in Witton as an apprentice. A chance encounter in the late 1940s led him to pivot into academia, which became his lifelong passion. He graduated with BSc and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Bristol University before joining the staff at Birmingham University, where he was promoted to Senior Lecturer and Reader in Electrical Mechanics.

He joined Loughborough University in 1974 as Professor of Electrical Power Engineering, and subsequently served as Head of the Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department, Dean of Engineering and Pro Vice-Chancellor.

In addition to teaching and supervision, Ivor undertook pioneering research into the production, conditioning and utilisation of large pulses of electrical energy (pulsed power), and was instrumental in Loughborough University’s decades-long pre-eminence in this field. He founded and developed the University’s internationally renowned Plasma and Pulsed Power Research Group, security cleared to undertake classified projects for NATO and the MoD, and oversaw technological innovations including magnetically insulating high-voltage transformers, pulsed power generation for high-impedance loads, multiple-phase twin-output, high-voltage generation, and unconventional microwave generation. In addition to DSAC, he served on many other MoD committees, chaired the IET’s Pulsed Power Committee, was external examiner to around 40 universities and consulted on pulsed power to over 20 businesses.

His pioneering research led to the award of DSc (Bristol) in 1973, and his election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1988. In 2001, he was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor from Loughborough University, where he continued working on a daily basis until his late eighties.

He died on 23 January 2022, aged 92, three weeks after he and our mother celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Throughout, he remained an avid supporter of Aston Villa FC and Warwickshire County Cricket Club. He is survived by his wife Pamela, we three sons, and six grandchildren.

Laurence, Andrew and Michael Smith

View The Guardian's obituary submitted by Ivor's son Laurence