Erich Zepler

Erich Ernst Zepler (27 January 1898 - 13 May 1980), later known as Eric Ernest Zepler, was a German-born electronics expert, lecturer, and chess problem composer. He was a Christian, but of Jewish race. He fled Germany in 1935, with his family and most of his possessions. He settled in England, dropping the H in his first name, and adding an E to his middle name, to become Eric Ernest Zepler.

Education Zepler studied physics in Berlin and Bonn before receiving his doctorate from the University of Würzburg.

He was a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) of the University of Würzburg (by research), before commencing work for Telefunken in Germany, eventually becoming head of the radio receiver laboratories. Having fled to England to avoid Nazi persecution, he found work with the Marconi Company.

In 1947 he founded the Department of Electronics at University College, Southampton (now the University of Southampton), one of the first in the world. In 1949 the post of Chair of Electronics was created for him. The department is now home to the Zepler Building, named after him. He wrote several textbooks on electronics, the best known being his first, The Technique of Radio Design. It is said that many of his radios were used in World War II (on both sides).

In 1980 a historic Telefunken T9W radio receiver, designed by Zepler in 1927-1928, and retained by the company in Germany as an example of pioneering work, was transferred to the School of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton University as a heritage asset on permanent loan.

Publications The Technique of Radio Design Chapman & Hall 1943, 1949 (& Punnet S W) Electronic Circuit Techniques Blackie 1963 Electronic devices and networks Blackie 1963 (& Havel J R P) The Loudness of Sonic Booms and other Impusive Sounds. J. Sound & Vibration vol.2(3), 1965, 249-256 (& Nichols K G) Transients in Electronic Engineering Chapman & Hall 1971