Aldo da Rosa

Aldo Weber Vieira da Rosa (November 15, 1917 – June 8, 2015) was a professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Stanford University. His research interests were in ionospheric processes, energy processes and renewable energy. He authored Fundamentals of Electronics and Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Processes (2005). His patent for the process for the production of ammonia expired in 1996.

Biography Da Rosa was born in Florianópolis, Brazil. After graduating from the Brazilian Military Academy and the Military School of Realengo both in Rio de Janeiro, he entered the Brazilian Air Force. During the 1940s, he was stationed in Washington, D.C., USA and later at Alameda Naval Air Station in the San Francisco Bay Area. He had the opportunity to attend Stanford University while in California; despite not having an undergraduate degree, his technical experience enabled him to be admitted into the electrical engineering graduate program. He finished this degree in 1944 and moved to Harvard University before returning to Brazil the following year. He returned to Stanford to earn his PhD in electrical engineering, which he did so under Owen K. Garriott. He completed the degree in 1966, his research focusing on a full-physics model of the electron distribution in the ionosphere.

Personal life An active masters swimmer, da Rosa broke 99 national records and 44 world records in masters swimming. He currently still holds the world records in the 85-89 age group in the 200 meter IM and 200 meter breast stroke. He was inducted into the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame in 2004.

Da Rosa married fellow Stanford University student Aili Ranta in 1944. He died in Palo Alto, California at the age of 97 on June 8, 2015.