IEEE ANTENNASAND PROPAGATIONSOCIETYNEWSL~TTER.

FEBRUARY 1981

In Memoriam Dr. Georg Goubau Dr. Goubau'sretirement i n 1973 was onlynominal.

He now investigatedfundamentalquestions i n thearea
oflow-profileantennas and new, multielement
approachestotheirdesign. For severalyears he
worked as a consultant to the Electronics Command
Laboratories, where in 1976 he chaireda Workshop on
E l e c t r i c a l l y Small Antennas which was attended by an
internationalaudience.
In 1974, hebecame a Visiting Professor at Rutgers
University, where he joined the faculty of the Elec-
trical Engineering Departmentworking a s a t h e s i s
advisor.Inthecourseofhis work there, he developed
a novel computermodeling method f o r smallantennasof
complex configuration.
Dr. Goubauwas the author of numerous publications
and theholderoftwelvemajorpatents.Hisachieve-
ments were recognized bymany awardsincludingFellow-
Dr. Georg Goubau, i n t e r n a t i o n a l l y known s c i e n t i s t , s h i p t o the IEEE, t h e IEEE Harry Diamond Award, t h e
died on October17,1980, a t 73years of age. He was John T. Bolljahn Award of the IRE Professional Group
born in Munich, Germany, and lived since1950 i n on Antennas and Propagation, and thehighly-esteemed
Eatontown, New Jersey. Decoration forMeritoriousCivilServiceof the
Department of t h e Army.
He s t u d i e d a t the TechnicalUniversityof Munich
where he majored in physics under the guidanceof Dr. Goubau's work was distinguished by unusual
Prof. Zenneck. He earnedhis MS and PhD degrees i n c r e a t i v i t y and adherence to the highest professional
1930 and 1931; i n 1936, he earned the Dr. h a b i l i t a t u s standards. He was uncompromising i n hisquestfor
degree. tie remained attheTechnicalUniversityof excellence. The questionofwhether hewas primarily
Munich a s an Assistant Professor and Dozent atheoreticalor an experimentalphysicistisdiffi-
(AssociateProfessor)until1939. c u l t t o answer; hewas an expert in both disciplines.
His p a r t i c u l a r s t r e n g t h was anexceptional i n s i g h t
and intuitiveunderstandingofphysics. He i n s i s t e d
Dr. Goubau's f i e l d ofresearchduringthattime on exactnessinhistheoretical work and favored
was theexperimental and theoreticalinvestigationof analyticalapproachesguidedthroughout by physical
ionospheric wave propagation. As a f i r s t major s t e p reasoning,oftenresulting i n elegantsolutions. In
inthesestudies, he designed and i n s t a l l e d an iono- hisexperimental work, he favoredtechniques which
spheric research station i n t h e v i c i n i t y o f Munich. were refined b u t simpleand,hence,highlyaccurate.
I t was t h e f i r s t such s t a t i o n i n Germany; t h e s t a t i o n
remained i n operationuntil 1949. He, himself, was his most demanding c r i t i c and
likedtoclarifyhisideas i n discussions w i t h h i s
In 1939, Dr. Goubauwas appointedFullProfessor associates. In thesediscussions, which were both
and Director of the DepartmentofAppliedPhysics at enjoyable and enlightening, he p e r s i s t e d u n t i l a l l
the University of Jena.Here, he lectured on h i g h aspects of the problem a t hand were fully understood.
frequencytechniques,electronoptics,gasdischarges, He regarded only significant advancementsworthyof
and measuringtechniques; he conductedresearch on publication and used great care in preparing these
antennas and performedfundamental s t u d i e s on wave- publications. To those who had theopportunity and
guides,cavities, and microwave c i r c u i t s . The r e s u l t s good f o r t u n e t o work with him, hewas an inspiring
of these studies are presented in the book "Elektro- teacher.Severalof the students he taught i n Germany
magneti sche Wellenl e i t e r und Hohl raume," which a r e now professors; many of his associates in the
Prof. Goubau wrotetogether w i t h his associates during UnitedStatesearnedtheir PhD degreesunderhis
1947. Due t o postwarconditions i n Germany, publica- stimulatingguidance.
tion was delayeduntil 1955. Thebook was t r a n s l a t e d
intoEnglish i n 1961. Or. Goubau will be remembered by h i s f r i e n d s and
colleaguesforhisintegrity,sincerity,senseof
In 1947,Prof. Goubau joined the US Army Signal humor, and personalconcernforhiscoworkers. Even
Corps EngineeringLaboratories a t Fort Monmouth, under t h e burden ofa heavy workload hewas p e r f e c t l y
N.J. ( l a t e r t o become t h e US Army Electronics Command composed; he was easily accessible to everyone who
Laboratories) , where he worked until his retirement sought h i sc o n s u l t a t i o n and advice.Inhispersonal
in1973.During t h i s time he conductedresearch on a approach, Dr. Goubau was d i r e c t ,s i n c e r e , and
wide varietyofsubjectsin the generalareaof unassuming. Closerelationship w i t h him resultednot
electromagnetics,includingunconventionalantennas, only in friendship with him, b u t i n admiration and
free-space and guided wave propagation,opticaltrans- respect. Dr. Goubau's d e a t h i s ag r e a tl o s st o his
mission,scatter and d i f f r a c t i o n , microwave power f r i e n d s and t o t h e s c i e n t i f i c community.
transmission, microwave networkcomponents, and
measurement techniques. He made originalcontribu-
t i o n st ot h es t a t e - o f - t h e - a r t i n allthesefields.
Among these contributions, two areoutstanding and FelixSchwering
have become associated w i t h his name: thesurface
wave t r a n s m i s s i o n l i n e , a l s o known a s t h e Goubau-line;
and t h e beam waveguide,alow-losslensguideforlong
distancetransmission of coherentoptical beams. In
the theoretical investigation of these beam waveguides,
which he f i r s t s t u d i e d a t m i l l i m e t e r wavelength, he
developed the now widely-usedconcept of Gaussian beam
modes. His papers on theseinvestigations have become
classics.