Biographical note

B.T. Fijalkowski is Emeritus Professor of Mechatronics at the Thaddeus Kosciuszko Memorial Cracow University of Technology, Poland. He obtained MSc, PhD and DSc degrees, all in Electrical Engineering from Szczecin University of Technology in 1959, Academy of Mining and Metallurgy in 1965 and Poznan University of Technology in 1988, respectively. He worked in industry for 5 years, and in academia for 45 years; he was the Director of the Electrotechnics & Industrial Electronics Institute, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering and he was also the Head of Automotive Mechatronics Institution, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Cracow University of Technology. He was a visiting professor at several well-known universities. He serves as Consultant to several organisations in Poland and the United States. He is the signatory of the MoU for the establishment of World Electric Vehicles Association (WEVA). He was Guest Editor of Journal of Circuits, Systems and Computers -- Special Issue on Automotive Electronics, Reviewer and Referee, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems -- Part I, and IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, USA. Reviewer of books and book chapters on "Automotive Electrics and Electronics", "Electric Drives Systems Dynamics" as well as "Wireless Information Transmission", and is listed in f.e. "Who's Who in the World", "Who's Who in Science and Engineering" . He has published 23 books and book chapters as well as over 200 technical papers and 25 patents on mining and metallurgy as well as automotive electrics and electronics as well as mechatronics. Recent publications by him include books (monographs), book chapters, journal articles, and conference proceedings on topics such as mathematical models of selected aerospace and automotive discrete dynamical hyper-systems as well as the civil and military all-electric and hybrid-electric vehicles and also nano-magneto-rheological fluid (NMRF) mechatronic commutator, 'crankless' internal combustion engines with energy storage, termed the Fijalkowski engines and virtually zero-emission automotive gas turbines. He made valuable contributions to several of ASME, ISATA, ISTVS, SAE as well as EVS and WEVA conferences as track and/or session chair and speaker and was always a pleasure to work with. A great communicator, always candid and thoughtful in his interactions with others, he was an inspiration for many of scientists. His hobby is yachting. He has the Rank of Ocean-Going Yacht Master.