Hans-Jürgen Butterweck was educated at the RWTH Aachen (MSc 1956, PhD 1959) and became lecturer at RWTH Aachen in 1958. He moved to Eindhoven in 1964 to join Philips Research, and in 1967 he joined TU/e as full professor in Theoretical Electrical Engineering with a specialization in circuit theory. Prof. Butterweck should be considered as one of the pioneering professors of Electrical Engineering at TU/e. He quickly built a group with -at that time- young, promising scientists and dedicated research assistants who were at the scientific frontline of circuit theory. He also served several stints as chairman of the Theoretical Electrical Engineering group. Over the years the emphasis of his research shifted increasingly towards the then emerging field of signal processing. In 1992 this led to the establishment of the Electronic Signal Processing group which was the predecessor of the current Signal Processing Systems group.
Prof. Butterweck was a kind-hearted, honest and friendly person who always showed interest in the wellbeing of his colleagues and others.
For us as former students he will perhaps best be remembered by his outstanding teaching skills. Many generations of EE students had the privilege of being inaugurated into the secrets of circuit theory and frequency analysis by Prof. Butterweck, and will fondly remember his lucid explanations and his excellent book.
After his retirement in 1994 Prof. Butterweck continued to be scientifically productive and for many years he was a frequent guest in the emeriti room on the 9th floor of E Hoog. His final scientific accomplishment was a wave theory of long adaptive filters that establishes an intimate connection between signal processing and circuit theory, effectively making his long career come full circle.
We owe him a debt of gratitude for his many contributions to our department.
On behalf of the TU/e Department of Electrical Engineering
Martin Bastiaans, Jan Bergmans, Pierre Cluitmans, Bart Smolders