Bulletin

Obituary – Dr. István Berta

We were deeply saddened to learn that Dr. István Berta, Professor Emeritus of the High Voltage
Technology and Equipment Group in the Department of Electric Power Engineering at the Budapest
University of Technology and Economics (BME), passed away on the afternoon of 25 October 2026.
He remains with us through his children, grandchildren, students, the renewed High Voltage
Laboratory, and all that his knowledge and work helped bring into being.
He was born in Debrecen on 22 August 1949 and completed his secondary education there, on the
specialist English programme at the KLTE Practice Secondary and Primary School.
He graduated in electrical engineering from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at BME in 1972,
specialising in power engineering with a focus on automation. He earned his university doctorate in
engineering in 1977. In 1988, he was awarded the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences (CSc).
He earned a PhD in 1994 and habilitation in 1995. In 1997, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
awarded him the title of Doctor of Technical Sciences (DSc).
From 1990 to 1993, he served as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
at BME. He headed the Department of High Voltage Engineering and Equipment from 1993 to 2001.
After the Department of Electric Power Engineering was established in 2001, he led its High Voltage
Engineering and Equipment Group until 2019. He became a full professor in 1996 and Professor
Emeritus in 2019.
His research focused on industrial electrostatics, lightning protection, and electromagnetic
environmental protection. He founded the Electrostatics Research School and led the Budapest
School of Lightning Protection from 1998 to 2019. His work developing and industrializing
electrostatic precipitators helped make environmentally friendly technologies more widely available.
He helped establish live working as a subject of university research and teaching and was a founding
member of the Dr. Béla Csikós Live Working Training Centre, set up in 2011. Throughout his work,
he brought scientific research and safe engineering practice together.
He taught generations of engineers, developing courses in Hungarian and English and actively
participating in continuing professional education. What he taught lives on in his students’ work and
in the knowledge they pass on to the next generation.
He held a Széchenyi Professorial Scholarship from 1997 to 2001 and, alongside his university
activities, served as Managing Director of Shock Ltd until 2025.
His professional and scientific work earned him many honours. Among the most significant were the
Dénes Gábor Award from the Novofer Foundation (2002); the Award of the Scientific Committee of
the International Conference on Lightning Protection, ICLP (2012); the M. Johann Hohlfeld Award
of the International Society for Electrostatic Precipitation, ISESP (2016); appointment as Honorary
Chairman of the European Working Party on Static Electricity in Industries of the European
Federation of Chemical Engineering (2017); the Verebélÿ Award of the Hungarian Electrotechnical
Association (2017); the Szilárd Zielinszki Award of the Hungarian Chamber of Engineers (2018); the
Grand Prize for Electrical Engineering of the Hungarian Electrotechnical Association (2025); and the
Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, Civil Division (2026).
He held senior positions in numerous Hungarian and international professional and scientific
organisations, including membership of the ICLP Scientific Committee and the governing body of
ISESP. He served as President of the Hungarian Electrotechnical Association from 2000 to 2005 and
was elected a life member in 2026. He chaired the EFCE Working Party on Static Electricity in
Industries and later became its Honorary Chairman. He was a member of the Hungarian Academy of
Engineering and the Committee on Electrical Engineering of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
and established the Human Electrotechnics Foundation.
Those of us who knew him mourn Pista as much as the scientist and teacher. It is painful to think we
will never talk with him again or ask his advice. Our profession and department are poorer for his
loss. We will miss someone with whom we shared years of our lives and who meant so much to us.
A teacher and mentor to generations, and a role model to so many of us, he leaves a void in our hearts
that no one else can fill. We will cherish his memory and carry on his work, always remembering his
humanity and integrity.
We remember him with gratitude. It was a privilege to be his students and to work alongside him.
His memory will always be with us.
Rest in peace, Pista!

Loading...

Beware of non-ICLP conferences

We have noticed the existence of organizations such as WASET that run conferences that have nothing to do with ICLP.

WASET claims to be organizing ICLP conferences at different locations every year.

This message is to inform you that the International Conference on Lightning Protection, a scientific/technical organ aiming at promoting scientific research on lightning physics as well as methods for improving protection of electric power and electronic systems, people, animals and properties against the effects of lightning (www.iclp-centre.org/), which has organized the ICLP conferences for more than 50 years, does not have any involvement with WASET and strongly keep distand from initiatives of this league.

We are confident that all researchers and members of the Lightning Physics and Lightning Protection community will immediately realize that standard of WASET conference on Lightning Protection does not match with the scientific value that characterizes ‘the’ International Conference on Lightning Protection.

Please spread this information among your contacts so that nobody mistakenly confuses our Conference with the WASET one!

Obituary – Professor Wolfgang Hadrian

The international lightning protection community has lost an outstanding scientist, teacher, and colleague with the passing of Wolfgang Hadrian.

Professor Wolfgang Hadrian (1942–2026) was a highly respected Austrian scientist in the fields of lightning protection and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). Throughout his long career at TU Wien, he made significant contributions to lightning research, electromagnetic field measurement, and protection of electrical and electronic systems against lightning effects and electromagnetic interference.

Professor Hadrian strongly supported the establishment of the Austrian Lightning Detection and Information System (ALDIS) and contributed to the development of the internationally recognized lightning measurement station at Gaisberg, Austria. His work helped advance both the scientific understanding and the practical implementation of modern lightning protection.

Since 1988, he served as Austria’s representative in the Scientific Committee of the International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP) and was also chairman of the Austrian national committee on lightning protection within the OVE.

Beyond his scientific achievements, Wolfgang Hadrian will be remembered as an inspiring teacher, a supportive colleague, and a kind and modest person with a fine sense of humor.

The international lightning protection community will remember him with great respect and gratitude.

Professor Shigeru Yokoyama, an emeritus SC member of ICLP, has passed away on May 1, 2023 in Kanagawa prefecture at the age of 76. He was born in Sendai, Japan, on March 5, 1947. He received the B. Sc. and Ph. D. Degrees from the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 1969 and 1986, respectively.

He joined Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan in 1969 and worked up to 2012. At CRIEPI he had been engaged in the research of lightning protection on power system, buildings, wind turbines and human bodies. From 2013 to 2016, he was a member of Japan Transport Safety Board.

From 2001 to 2007, he had been a visiting professor with Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Kyushu University. From November 2011 to March 2023, he had been a visiting professor at Shizuoka University.

He was a vice president of the IEE Japan in 2001. He became a life fellow of IEEE in 2015 and was a chairman of IEC TC 81 (Lightning Protection) Japanese committee from 2003 to 2020.

He was the LOC chair of ICLP2006 in Kanazawa and it was the first time that the ICLP was held outside Europe. He received ICLP Scientific Committee Award and ICLP Rudolf Heinrich Golde Award in 2012 and 2014, respectively. He was an excellent researcher in the field of lightning especially lightning protection of power systems. He was always very active, positive and educational throughout his life and an aggressive football (soccer) player even at his seventies. The members of the Scientific Committee of the International Conference on Lightning Protection and the whole lightning scientific community will miss Prof. Shigeru Yokoyama very much.


Dr. Takatoshi Shindo, a distinguished Research Advisor Emeritus at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan, passed away on August 27, 2022 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. He was born in Tokyo on November 21, 1953. He was 68 years old.

Dr. Shindo received the B.S. and M.E. degrees in electrical engineering and the Ph.D. degree in engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1976, 1978, and 1992, respectively.

He joined the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) in 1978 where he worked up to 2015, terminating his career as Research Advisor Emeritus. In the period 1987-88 he was Research Associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Florida. In 1988 he was appointed as Director of the Electrical Insulation Department, Komae Research Laboratory of CRIEPI, and in the period 2009-2015 he served as Associate Vice President of Electric Power Engineering Research Laboratory of CRIEPI. Since 2015 he served as a Research Advisor of CRIEPI, becoming Research Advisor Emeritus in 2018.

Dr Shindo has been actively engaged in the study of external insulation of power apparatus, particularly regarding lightning protection, and the physics of discharge in long air gaps. His scientific results have been highly appreciated by the international scientific community as demonstrated by the prestigious awards and recognitions he received. Dr. Shindo was an IEEE Fellow, class 2001 and was a recipient of the ICLP International Scientific Committee Award. His scientific and technical achievements will survive him, his scientific talent and his thoroughness were comparable only to his kindness, to his sensitivity and to his elegant understatement. The members of the Scientific Committee of the International Conference on Lightning Protection and the whole lightning scientific community will miss Dr. Takatoshi Shindo very much.