Charles Susskind

Susskind was born to a Jewish family in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on August 19, 1921. His mother, Trudie, was a pianist, and his older brother, Walter Susskind, became a world-renowned conductor, most notably of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. His father, Bruno, died shortly after under suspicious circumstances—five Jewish men died during surgery at the same hospital that week—and his mother survived several Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz. They married on May 1, 1945—the same day newspapers announced Adolf Hitler's death. == Career ==

Stanford University Susskind began his academic career at Stanford University in 1951 as a research associate and lecturer in electrical engineering. University of California, Berkeley In 1955, Susskind joined the University of California, Berkeley faculty as an assistant professor of electrical engineering. He was promoted to full professor of engineering science in 1964. Their efforts laid the foundation for the Joint UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco Graduate Group in Bioengineering, established in 1982, and the Department of Bioengineering, founded in 1999. Susskind's undergraduate course "Technology in Society" became one of the most popular courses on the Berkeley campus, drawing thousands of students from both the arts and sciences over several decades. Former Berkeley mathematics professor Theodore Kaczynski, later known as the Unabomber, reportedly took issue with the course; when Kaczynski was captured, it was discovered that Susskind was on his list of potential targets, and Kaczynski had planted two bombs in Cory Hall, where Susskind had his offices. Administrative positions Susskind served as assistant dean of UC Berkeley's College of Engineering from 1964 to 1968. In 1969, he joined the University of California Office of the President as coordinator of academic affairs, responsible for coordinating academics across all nine UC campuses until 1974. He returned to teaching at Berkeley in 1974 and was appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee in 1980, becoming chairman of the committee in 1985. Susskind retired from UC Berkeley in 1991 but continued to write and lecture extensively, attending international conferences around the world. His last public lecture was a keynote address on the history of radar at the International Telecommunications Conference (TELECOM) in Geneva in 1997. == Publications and San Francisco Press ==

Susskind was a prolific author, writing or co-authoring 15 books. His 1968 book Understanding Technology was translated into seven languages and included a proposed Hippocratic Oath for engineers, in which scientists would pledge not to use their skills to harm people or the environment. He also co-edited, with Johanna Hertz and Mathilde Hertz, a bilingual edition of Heinrich Hertz: Erinnerungen, Briefe, Tagebücher / Memoirs, Letters, Diaries (1977). == Honours ==

• Fulbright Scholarship, Imperial College London (1961) • National Science Foundation Senior Faculty Fellowship, University of Geneva (1968) • Numerous awards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers == Personal life ==

Susskind married Teresa Gabriel in London on May 1, 1945. They remained married for 59 years until his death. Teresa Susskind, who had worked as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during the war, later became a professional librarian and community activist, serving on the board of governors of the San Francisco Symphony from 1985 to 1989. She died in 2015. Susskind was a cellist, and he and his wife subscribed to the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Symphony for nearly 50 years. In the summer of 1969, he returned to his native Prague for the first time since fleeing in 1939, the first of many visits over the following 30 years. He died on June 15, 2004, at his home in Berkeley after a decade-long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was survived by his wife Teresa; daughters Pamela Pettler and Amanda Susskind; son Peter Susskind; and two grandsons. His daughter Amanda later served as Los Angeles Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League for 18 years. == References ==