Harold Everard Monteagle Barlow, 15 November 1899 - 20 April 1989

Harold Barlow’s distinguished career was almost entirely spent at University College London (UCL), an institution that he dearly loved and within which he made a major contribution to the revitalization of electrical engineering education in Britain, especially in the years from 1945 onwards. His longest absence from UCL was from 1939 to 1945, most of which period he spent at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Famborough working on radar, or radiolocation, as it was known in the U.K. at that time. He was particularly impressed by the tremendous contribution to the war effort of microwave radar and communications systems, and he returned to academic life at UCL with two thoughts uppermost in his mind; the immense potential of the microwave frequency band for peaceful applications, and the need for electrical engineers to have a far deeper understanding of electromagnetic theory than had traditionally been the case, if they were to play a full part in the exciting developments that he so clearly foresaw. He was very successful in turning these ideas into reality, and he soon established for himself and for his Department a leading position in microwave engineering education. However, Harold Barlow believed very strongly in the interplay between teaching and research, and the microwave research school, which he established, not only illuminated and stimulated the thorough teaching of fundamentals to undergraduate engineers, but provided a first class environment for graduate students, who came from all over the world to carry out research under his inspiring and kindly guidance. The present international renown of the Department has its origins in the sound foundations laid down by Harold Barlow over four decades ago.