Vitold Belevitch

Vitold Belevitch (2 March 1921 – 26 December 1999) was a Belgian mathematician and electrical engineer of Russian origin who produced some important work in the field of electrical network theory. Born to parents fleeing the Bolsheviks, he settled in Belgium where he worked on early computer construction projects. Belevitch is responsible for a number of circuit theorems and introduced the now well-known scattering parameters. Belevitch had an interest in languages and found a mathematical derivation of Zipf's law. He also published on machine languages. Another field of interest was transmission lines, where he published on line coupling. He worked on telephone conferencing and introduced the mathematical construct of the conference matrix. Belevitch was born 2 March 1921 in Terijoki, Karelia, now incorporated into Russia, but at the time part of Finland. Belevitch's parents were Russian and his mother was an ethnic Pole. They were attempting to flee from their home in Petrograd (St Petersburg) in Russia to escape the Bolshevik revolution, which Belevitch's father opposed. Belevitch's heavily pregnant mother succeeded in crossing the border into Finland and continued on to Helsinki after Vitold was born, where the birth was registered. She headed for Helsinki because her husband's father was principal of the Russian school there. Belevitch's father was arrested before he could follow and was deported to Siberia, where he died without ever seeing his son. In 1926 Belevitch, while still a small child, emigrated with his mother to Belgium. Belevitch was educated in French in Belgium, until July 1936 at the Notre-Dame de la Paix College at Namur. In 1937, aged 16, he enrolled at the Université Catholique de Louvain where he studied electrical and mechanical engineering, graduating in 1942. Belevitch gained his PhD in applied sciences at the same university in 1945. His sponsor was Charles Lambert Manneback and his second advisor was Wilhelm Cauer, the founder of the field of network synthesis.