If you've ever had your house lights flicker alarmingly during a bad electrical storm but found that your prized home computing network survived just fine, you may wish to pay silent tribute to François Martzloff, an electronics engineer (now retired) from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Martzloff was just awarded a Lifetime Achievement award from the IEEE Standards Association, "for a lifetime of integrity, leadership and mentorship in standards development for surge-protective devices and power quality fostering technological innovation, excellence and benefit to humanity."
In a career that spanned both private industry (Southern States Equipment, General Electric) and public service (NIST), Martzloff became established as one of the guiding authorities in the development of devices and standards for protecting sensitive equipment from power surges.
His writings range from the authoritative Surge Protection in Low-Voltage AC Power Circuits: An 8-part Anthology (heavy going, recommended for experts) to the much more accessible SURGES HAPPEN! How to Protect the Appliances in Your Home (gracefully written, recommended for everyone, http://pml.nist.gov/spd-anthology/files/Surges_happen!.pdf).
He was named an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Fellow in 1983.
The IEEE Standards Association, a standards-setting body within IEEE, develops consensus standards that set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The announcement of the associations 2012 awards is at https://standards.ieee.org/news/2012/awards2012.html.
Edited on May 21, 2013, to update the url for the surge booklet.
