Cyrus Cantrell, professor of physics and electrical engineering and senior associate engineering dean for academic affairs at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Texas at Dallas, died of cancer June 19, 2013. He was 72.
Cantrell graduated from Harvard in 1962 and earned a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton in 1968. He then taught physics at Swarthmore and was at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Paris-Nord before joining UT Dallas in 1980 to start an applied-physics program.
In 1986, he also became an electrical engineering professor when the Jonsson Engineering School was founded. He wrote the textbook Modern Mathematical Methods for Physicists and Engineers (2000), and was a life fellow of the IEEE and the American Physical Society. Cantrell was known for mentoring faculty, students, and staff.
Mark W. Spong, dean of the Jonsson
School, said Cantrell was an outstanding teacher and researcher. “His immense knowledge of the history of UTD and the Jonsson School, which he was instrumental in shaping, is irreplaceable.”
He is survived by Lynn, his wife of 40 years, and a daughter. Another daughter died in 2003.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.