Friedrich Wilhelm Leuschner was born in Heidelberg, Gauteng on 10 August 1949. He matriculated from Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool in Pretoria with 3 distinctions.

He obtained his BSc (Eng) Electrical degree in 1971, BSc (Eng) (Hons) Electrical in 1976, MEng (Electrical) in 1983 and DEng (Electrical) in 1986.

His career at UP started as a temporary Lecturer / Consulting Engineer in the Department of Architecture (March 1976 – May 1976). He was appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering in June 1976. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1984, Associate Professor in January 1987 and Full Professor in January 1990. He was appointed as acting Head of the Department Electrical and Electronic Engineering (April 1993 – May 1994) and Head of Department from October 1994. He was instrumental introducing new degrees in Computer Engineering - at post-graduate level at the beginning of 1998 and at undergraduate level (BEng (Computer Engineering)) at the beginning of 1999. This was also the first undergraduate degree at the University of Pretoria, for which applicants could register through the Internet. He served as Head of Department Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering till April 2011. He established the Light and Vision Laboratory in May 2011 and retired as Emeritus Professor in January 2015.

His research fields included Radiometry, Photometry, LED Lighting and UltraViolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI). He supervised 12 Masters students and 2 PhDs. He co-authored 20 peer-reviewed articles and 4 conference papers. He presented 20 conference papers and published 7 expert reports.

He was a registered Professional Engineer with ECSA since 1975 and served on ECSA’s Professional Advisory Committee (PAC) for many years. He was also a Member of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, as well as the Illuminating Engineering Society of South Africa.

As a department we would like to thank him for his contributions and leadership. Rest in Peace.