In memoriam

Carlos A. Holzmann 1937-2003

Prof. Carlos A. Holzmann received an Engineering diploma (1961) from Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile, and an M.S. degree (1963), and Ph.D (1966) from The University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. He was a Fulbright scholar between 1961 and 1966. A brilliant student at Notre Dame his Ph.D. thesis made a fundamental and pioneering contribution to the Network and Graph Theory. Since 1969 he has been a faculty member at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Universidad de Chile. He was a Visiting Research Associate at University of Michigan (1971) and a Visiting Professor at The University of Notre Dame (1978). As a pioneer in Chile and South America, he formed the Biomedical Engineering Research Group and initiated the first Master's Program in Biomedical Engineering in Chile in 1975. He was the chairman of that program until 1993. Ten of the students that graduated from this program obtained Ph.D. degrees later in prestigious universities in the U.S.A., France and Japan. He was founder of the Latin American Regional Council of Biomedical Engineering (CORAL) and founder and president of Sociedad Chilena de Ingeniería Biomédica, SOCHIB. Prof. Holzmann was one of the initiators in developing expert systems for medical diagnosis using fuzzy logic, on ECG analysis and on sleep states classification. He introduced the concept of Fuzzy Ganglionar Lattices to deal with decision theory applied to medical diagnosis. He published over a dozen journal papers and over forty international conference papers, including papers with the following coauthors: Ruey-Wen Liu, Frank Harary, J.D. Donald and M.D. Tobey. He collaborated in several research projects on tactile information transfer, face and eye tracking and man-machine interfaces. Until April 2003 he served as Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. He also served as a referee in many scientific journals. He was Vice-Dean of Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas (School of Engineering) at Universidad de Chile (1975-1978). He actively participated in the committees that defined the standards for academic evaluation. The academic community benefited from his critical judgment, rigorous work, inquiring mind, vision and devotion to the Biomedical Engineering field.

He was also an excellent engineer with vast experience in technology ranging from TV cameras and automobile engines, to cellular phones. He was a pioneer in TV broadcasting in Chile, designing the first TV camera in the country in 1959. On the personal side, he was a good friend, always ready to help or to provide warm advice. He had a good sense of humor and enjoyed devoting time to colleagues and students. He will be greatly missed by his colleagues and friends.

Claudio A. Perez and Pablo A. Estévez