Peter Peet Silvester (January 25, 1935 – October 11, 1996) was an

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the ...

who contributed to understanding of numerical analysis of

electromagnetic fields An electromagnetic field (also EM field or EMF) is a classical (i.e. non-quantum) field produced by (stationary or moving) electric charges. It is the field described by classical electrodynamics (a classical field theory) and is the classical ...

and authored a standard textbook on the subject. Silvester was born in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...

. He graduated from the Camegie Institute of Technology (now

Carnegie-Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technol ...

) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1956. After a period of industrial practice, he continued his studies at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

, obtaining the MASc in 1958, and then at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

(

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

), where he was awarded the PhD in Electrical Engineering, in 1964. He initially joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at McGill as Lecturer, then as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Full Professor. In 1996, he was honored with the titles of

emeritus professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at McGill University, and Honorary Professor at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

. Silvester devoted a large part of his career to the numerical analysis of electromagnetic field], with applications to magnetics,

microwaves Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...

, geomagnetics, antennas, and

bioelectricity In developmental biology, bioelectricity refers to the regulation of cell, tissue, and organ-level patterning and behavior as the result of endogenous electrically mediated signaling. Cells and tissues of all types use ion fluxes to communicate ...

. His main research focused on the

finite element method The finite element method (FEM) is a popular method for numerically solving differential equations arising in engineering and mathematical modeling. Typical problem areas of interest include the traditional fields of structural analysis, heat ...

, as applied to electromagnetics, where he was a pioneer. His paper, ''Finite-Element Solution of Homogeneous-Waveguide Problems'', presented at the 1968

URSI The International Union of Radio Science (abbreviated ''URSI'', after its French name, french: link=no, Union radio-scientifique internationale) is one of 26 international scientific unions affiliated to the International Council for Science ( ...

Symposium on Electromagnetic Waves, and later on, published in the Italian technical journal, ''Alta Frequenza'', was definitely the first FEM application to electronic engineering. In this field, his contributions were valuable, both from the theoretical and the applications side. He studied topics which ranged from potential and scalar-wave problems, in the first years, to applications to microwave devices, antennas, electric machines, as well as new kinds of elements and formulations, open-boundary problems, and parallel computing. His book, Finite Elements for Electrical Engineering, written with Ron Ferrari, has been the only textbook on this specific topic for many years, and it has been translated into many languages, among which are Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. He founded the Computational Analysis and Design Laboratory (CAD-Lab) at the Electrical Engineering Department of McGill University, in 1978, which has now become probably the largest research organization of its kind in Canada, and one of the largest in the world. Peter Silvester also was a founder o
Infolytica Corporation
(Montreal), a consulting and engineering simulation software (computer-aided engineering, or CAE) company. Silvester maintained strong research ties with colleagues of several other institutions, notably the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first univer ...

, creatively sharing his knowledge. He also acted as a consultant to a number of major corporations and government agencies. He was a member of major professional organizations in his field, a member of steering committees and boards of various scientific and professional conferences, and was elected a Fellow of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

for "...contributions to the art of finite-element analysis." He was also a Fellow of the IEE, and of the Royal Society of Canada. His archives are held at the

McGill University Archives The McGill University Archives (MUA) performs integrated archival and records management for McGill University. and is housed on the fourth floor of the McLennan Library Building The McLennan Library Building of McGill University in Montreal, Queb ...

Books

* Peter P. Silvester, M. V. K. Chari, ''Finite Elements in Electrical and Magnetic Field Problems'', John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1980. * Peter P. Silvester, Ronald L. Ferrari, ''Finite Elements for Electrical Engineers, 1ed'', Cambridge University Press, 1983. * Peter P. Silvester, D. A. Lowther ''Computer-Aided Design in Magnetics'', Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1986 * Peter P. Silvester, Ronald L. Ferrari, ''Finite Elements for Electrical Engineers, 2ed'', Cambridge University Press, 1990. * Peter P. Silvester,

Giuseppe Pelosi Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph, from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף. It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it. The feminine form of the name is Giusep ...

, ''Finite Elements for Wave Electromagnetics'', IEEE Press, New York, 1994, * Peter P. Silvester,

Tatsuo Itoh Tatsuo Itoh (1940-2021) was Professor and holder of the Northrop Grumman Chair in Microwave and Millimeter Wave Electronics in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he taught and conducted ...

, Giuseppe Pelosi, ''Finite Element Software for Microwave Engineering'', Wiley-Interscience, 1996, * Peter P. Silvester,

Institution of Electrical Engineers The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and Information Technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. It began in 1871 as the Society of T ...

(Corporate Author),

(Corporate Author), ''Software for Electrical Engineering Analysis and Design III'', Computational Mechanics, 1996, * Peter P. Silvester, Ronald L. Ferrari, ''Finite Elements for Electrical Engineers, 3ed'', Cambridge University Press, 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silvester, Peter P. Carnegie Mellon University alumni McGill University faculty 1935 births 1996 deaths