Charles Proteus Steinmetz

Charles Proteus Steinmetz, born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz in Breslau, Prussia, was a mathematician and electrical engineer who emigrated to the United States in 1889 and became one of the foundational figures of the American electric power industry. He joined General Electric in 1893, where colleagues called him the engineering wizard, and also chaired the electrical engineering department at Union College from 1902 to 1913, holding more than 200 patents by the time of his death. His central technical achievement was recasting the calculus-heavy mathematics of alternating current circuit analysis into simpler algebraic methods using complex numbers, work that made practical AC system design far more tractable for working engineers, alongside influential research on magnetic hysteresis that improved the design of electromagnetic equipment. He also conducted highly publicized laboratory experiments simulating lightning, earning him the nickname forger of thunderbolts, and served as president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers from 1901 to 1902.