Janusz Brzozowski, distinguished professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, died of cancer Oct. 24, 2019, at age 84.
Born in 1935 in Warsaw, Poland, he was the son of a captain in the Polish Army who was killed in the 1939 invasion when Stalin and Hitler divided up Poland. In 1940, Brzozowski and his family were deported to Russia, and in 1942 they escaped to Persia. They were refugees in Teheran and later in Lebanon until 1949, when they immigrated to Canada.
In 1953 he graduated from St. Michael’s College School in Toronto, and he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1957 and a master’s degree in 1959, both in electrical engineering, from the University of Toronto. In 1962 he earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton. That year, he joined the electrical engineering department at the University of Ottawa.
In 1967 he became a professor in the department of computer science at the University of Waterloo, where he was twice chair of the department. He retired in 1996. An early pioneer in theoretical computer science, he wrote almost 200 papers and co-authored two books. During his career he held many visiting appointments.
Brzozowski is survived by his wife of 60 years, Grazyna; two children; three grandchildren; and two step-grandchildren.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.