Felix Weinberg

Who is Felix Weinberg?

Felix Jiri Weinberg FRS was a British physicist. He was Emeritus Professor of Combustion Physics and Distinguished Research Fellow at Imperial College London.

Felix Weinberg was born in the Sudeten part of Czechoslovakia. As a teenager he spent much of the war in Auschwitz, Buchenwald and other Nazi concentration camps. He arrived in England on V. J. day. Having had no formal schooling since the age of 12, he had to take his first degrees as an external student of the University of London. In 1951 he joined Imperial College as a Research Assistant, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1954 for developing novel optical methods to analyse the structure of flames. He was appointed to a Personal Chair as Professor of Combustion Physics in 1967.

Professor Weinberg is distinguished for his optical and electrical studies of flames and his pioneering development of innovative combustion methods. He originated a family of powerful optical tools in combustion, using both thermal and laser light sources. His work on electrical diagnostics led to applications of electric fields to control combustion and improve understanding of ionisation and soot formation. He developed novel combustion devices[4] incorporating distinctive heat exchangers, permitting the ignition and burning of very low calorific fuel-air mixtures. These have had a seminal influence on the global evolution of environmentally benign combustion furnaces. His researches into the stabilisation of high intensity combustion using plasma jets[4] are being favoured as an approach to leaner burning jet engines. His work on laser ignition has progressed to understanding hazards associated with the use of optical fibres in flammable atmospheres.