In Memoriam
Fred E. Gardiol passed away on December 2, 2025, at the age of 90 years old. He was born in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. He graduated in Engineering Physics at the Ecole Polytechnique de l’Université of Lausanne (EPUL), Switzerland in 1960. He obtained in 1965 a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1969, he received the Doctorate in Applied Science from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium.
While doing his master’s at MIT, Fred Gardiol had a research job in Raytheon SMDO, Waltham, MA, where he developed high-power microwave ferrite devices. Afterwards, he focused his doctoral research at UCL on the theoretical modeling of some loaded waveguided devices he had empirically developed for Raytheon, which resulted in several papers published in 1969-70 in the IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, presenting some fundamental algorithms still in use.
After finishing his PhD thesis in 1969, Fred Gardiol accepted a position of Full Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where he created the Laboratory of Electromagnetism and Acoustics (LEMA), a teaching and research group that he directed for 30 years, until his retirement in 1999. He was also Visiting Professor in numerous universities and diverse countries, including Algeria, Brazil, Canada, Cameroon, France, India, Italy, and Japan.
Prof. Fred E. Gardiol was the General Chair of the 4th European Microwave Conference (EuMC) in Montreux in 1974, and he chaired the EuMC Management Committee (1973-1976). He was the very first recipient of the European Microwave Association (EuMA) Distinguished Service Award in 2004. During 1979-1992, he chaired the Swiss National Committee of the International Radio Scientific Union (URSI), and the URSI Commission B on Field and Waves (1990-1993). He was founder and first chairman of the IEEE Joint MTT-S/AP-S Swiss Chapter (1975-1976). He served as member of the IEEE MTT-S Speakers Bureau Program (1988-89) and of the AP-S AdCom (1988-1990). He also was Associate Editor of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.