Eric Zepler

Eric Zepler (born January 27, 1898, Westphalia, Germany—died May 13, 1980, Southampton, England) was a German-born physicist who made notable advances in the theory of radio design and was a pioneer of electronics education.

Zepler studied in Berlin, Bonn, and Würzburg and then went to work for Telefunken in 1925. Ten years later he fled Nazi Germany and joined the Marconi company in England. There he began the analytical work that resulted in his 1943 book, The Technique of Radio Design, the standard textbook on the subject for many years. During World War II radios built from Zepler’s designs were used by both the German and British air forces. In 1949 the first chair of electronics in Britain was created for him at the University of Southampton, where he instituted the diploma in electronics that, with his other educational work, helped establish electronics as a separate discipline. In 1963 he moved into the field of acoustics, conducting research on hearing and the detection of sound. Zepler was also an international chess master and published several books on the game.