Elmer Lewis is Professor Emeritus and a former Chairman of Northwestern’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. In descending order of importance, he met his wife, Ann, and obtained his BS, MS, and PhD at the University of Illinois, Champaign–Urbana. The following four years were spent on the East Coast, first in the army, where he achieved the rank of Captain, and then as Ford Foundation Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering at MIT. He joined Northwestern’s faculty in 1968 and has remained there through his entire career. He has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Stuttgart, and as a consultant to Argonne, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, and to a number of industrial firms.

His research has focused on the physics and safety of nuclear systems, and on technological risks in society more generally. Among numerous technical publications, he has authored four text and two trade books, the latter being Masterworks of Technology, The Story of Engineering, Architecture and Design, and How Safe Is Safe Enough? Technological Risks – Real and Perceived. Cast into the limelight at the time of the Fukushima disaster, he appeared on a half dozen different TV channels and did numerous radio and print media interviews. He has spent the pandemic lockdown bringing himself up to speed on renewable energy and has given a three-hour zoom minicourse, Fighting Climate Change with Sun, Wind, Water, and Nuclear Energy, cosponsored by the Evanston Public Library and the Northwestern Emeriti Organization.

Over the last couple of years, Elmer has focused on writing his seventh book: “Renewables and Nuclear, Can they Pair to Curb Climate Change.”

Ann passed away after several years of declining health in November, 2022, but not before celebrating the couple’s 60th anniversary. Elmer divides his time between Evanston and his cottage near Gills Rock, Wisconsin. He has two married children and two grandsons.