Hans Wilhelmsson, Professor emeritus and jubilee doctor at Chalmers passed away on March 21, 2011. He had a most distinguished academic career, including a time as research director at the Swedish Defence Research Institute in Stockholm.

Hans Wilhelmsson was born in 1929 and studied at Chalmers and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. In 1959, he graduated with a doctoral degree in technology. During the next two years, he was a postdoc at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he worked with the famous physicist Edward Freeman. After that, he returned to his old department and the Onsala Space observatory as an Associate professor. He stayed there until 1964, when he took up a position as research director at the Defence Research Institute. In 1967 he joined the new master of engineering education in Uppsala, where he once again became an associate professor.

Hans Wilhelmsson returned to Chalmers in 1971, when he became a full professor in electromagnetic field theory. He also had a most distinguished career within the Academies of Sciences, as well as within the research boards. He became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1974 and then also of the Academy of Engineering Sciences in 1978. At Chalmers, Hans Wilhelmsson was the Dean of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering 1983-1987.

Hans Wilhelmsson was very well known internationally. He started several international collaborations and was a member of numerous foreign academies and research institutes. He also had contacts with the industry. Hans Wilhelmsson is the author of more than 200 research papers and about 10 books and conference proceedings. He retired from Chalmers in 1994 and became a jubilee doctor in 2009.
Hans Wilhelmsson was highly appreciated nationally and internationally, both as a scientist and as a friend, and the loss of him will be deeply felt by old colleagues as well as friends.