MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science EECS Great Educators

When Professor Melcher was appointed to the faculty in 1962, the Department acquired an intellectual powerhouse. An extraordinary man, he was an inspiring teacher, a superb researcher, a prolific writer, a creative innovator and inventor, and most of all a top-notch engineer with a keen sense of moral and social responsibility.

Born in 1936 in Giard, Iowa, Professor Melcher received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering in 1957 and the M.S. degree in nuclear engineering a year later, both from Iowa State University. He then came to MIT where he received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 1962. He died of abdominal cancer in 1991.

Professor Melcher's specialty was the interaction of electric fields and fluids -- electrodynamics, continuum mechanics, and electrohydrodynamics. When he taught these subjects, his innovative approach to content and organization, together with his dynamic, forceful lecturing, instilled enthusiasm in both students and colleagues. His lectures were enlivened by frequent demonstrations that vividly reinforced the theory. His classroom notes eventually grew into textbooks that now serve as references in industry, at MIT, and at other universities. His legacies include six textbooks and six educational films and videotapes.

Throughout his thirty-year professional career, Professor Melcher's students were his primary concern. Always setting and demanding high standards, he was their constructive critic, wise counselor, and friend. Several of his thirty doctoral students have gone on to teach at universities; two are now on the MIT EECS faculty.

Professor Melcher's research followed his teaching style -- development of new theories, and frequent applications to practical engineering problems. Much of his research was carried out while he served as Director of the High Voltage Laboratory and later Director of the Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems. He made innovative contributions in such diverse areas as polymer and glass processing, dielectric liquid mixing, stack gas cleaning, electrostatic precipitators, air-pollution control, energy-conversion systems, electric-power lines, and biomedical products. He had 13 patents and over 100 journal articles to his credit. He did nothing less than rediscover and popularize the entire field of continuum electromechanics and its applications.

Professor Melcher's greatness as an educator and researcher has been recognized both within and beyond MIT. He received the Outstanding Teaching Award of the New England Section of the American Society for Engineering Education, and the MIT Graduate Teaching Award in Electrical Engineering. In 1981 he was named Julius A. Stratton Professor in Electrical Engineering and Physics. He was cited as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for "contributions to electrohydrodynamics and its practical applications." His election to the National Academy of Engineering in 1982 was for "applications of continuum electromechanical principles to engineering science advancements in electrohydrodynamics, magnetohydrodynamics and electrofluidized beds."

Recognition of his contributions also came in a special 1995 James R. Melcher memorial issue of the Journal of Electrostatics . Ten papers were presented, some by his former students, on various aspects of electrostatics, a subject to which Professor Melcher contributed so much during his career. The son of a minister, Professor Melcher believed engineers should devote their talents to ensuring an ever higher quality of life for all. He chose research topics and sponsors consistent with his personal values.

He also held deep convictions about directions the department, MIT, and the United States should be taking, and he promoted his views through strong activism. He often spoke out on what he thought were misdirected American political policies, whether they were excessive DoD spending on weapons of warfare, or the country's heavy dependence on foreign oil. One of his last projects was a paper, published posthumously in Technology Review , drawing parallels between his deteriorating personal health and what he perceived as the nation's deteriorating energy policy.

As a founder of The MIT Faculty Newsletter , he helped provide an MIT forum for the discussion of important issues of the day.