In Memoriam: John B. Thomas, Sau-Hai Lam *58, and Fred I. Greenstein

Published Dec. 26, 2018

Courtesy Thomas family

Former electrical engineering professor JOHN B. THOMAS died Sept. 13 in Hanover, N.H. He was 93. Thomas was a member of the faculty from 1955 to 1990. A pioneer in the field of information theory, he worked on mathematical tools that helped to detect and evaluate information encoded in electrical or radio signals.

He advised many graduate students who went on to become groundbreaking researchers in fields including the internet, cellphone networks, and other systems.

Courtesy Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

SAU-HAI “HARVEY” LAM *58, professor emeritus of mechanical and aerospace engineering, died Oct. 29 in Plainsboro, N.J. He was 87. Lam joined the faculty two years after earning his Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering in 1958, and became a full professor in 1968. In 1980–81 he was associate dean of engineering, and from 1983 to 1989 he was chair of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department. He retired in 1999.

Lam was a skilled theoretician who applied mathematics and computation to advance understanding of fluid mechanics, aerospace propulsion, plasma physics, and other areas. He helped establish Princeton’s Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics and served as co-chair from 1983 to 1986.

Nat Clymer/courtesy Woodrow Wilson School

Politics professor emeritus FRED I. GREENSTEIN, an authority on the U.S. presidency, died Dec. 3 at home in Princeton. He was 88. Greenstein joined the faculty in 1973 and served as director of the Woodrow Wilson School’s program in leadership studies. He transferred to emeritus status in 2001.

Greenstein was best known for his contributions to the systematic study of political psychology and for its application to presidential decision-making and leadership. He pioneered the use of archival documents to test hypotheses and illuminate issues that bear on the performance of the modern executive office. Greenstein published numerous books and was a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Published in the Jan. 9, 2019, Issue

In Memoriam

1 Response

Randall V. Gressang ’65

5 Years Ago

The In Memoriam for Professor John B. Thomas (On the Campus, Jan. 9) overlooked his teaching and mentoring of undergraduates. He provided invaluable advice to me on pursuing graduate education, with his advice leading to a National Science Foundation fellowship to continue my education at MIT. Elm Club had a number of electrical engineering undergraduates, and he accepted invitations to lunch at Elm and held impromptu seminars around the table with them. He and Professor Bede Liu restructured ELE 412, and the text in 1965 consisted of mimeographed sections of the book on statistical communication theory Professor Thomas was in the process of writing. He was also a regular attendee at the end-of-year picnic of the Student IEEE section, playing in the faculty-versus-students softball game.