In memoriam: Trevor Williams

Dr. Trevor Williams died in Victoria on Jan. 11. The day before, at a special convocation ceremony at Royal Jubilee Hospital, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies David Capson presented Trevor Williams with his doctoral certificate on behalf of the UVic Senate.

In view of the extraordinary circumstances and Trevor’s outstanding research progress toward his PhD degree, the university concluded that his completed work was well within the expected standards required for the completion of a PhD degree in mechanical engineering.

Attending the special convocation ceremony were Trevor’s wife Valerie, his brothers Stephen and Philip Williams and his mother Mair Williams, who had arrived from Wales the night before. Trevor generously shared this celebration with his fellow students, colleagues, friends as well as UVic faculty members who had worked with him during his doctoral studies.

Trevor graduated from Imperial College in 1987 with a BEng in aeronautical engineering followed, a few years later, by an MSc in management science from Southampton University. He worked for 23 years in the aerospace industry, for British Aerospace (UK), SENER and CASA (Spain), Dynacs (USA), Eutlesat (France) and MDA (Canada). During this part of his career, he worked on communications satellites, human-rated vehicles and low-earth orbit observation satellites.

In 2008, Trevor began PhD studies at UVic. The title of his dissertation is Probabilistic Power Flow Modeling of Renewable Energy and PEV Grid Interactions. His research makes significant contributions to our understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by the integration into distribution networks of plug-in electric vehicles and distributed energy resources.

A memorial ceremony was held on Jan. 18 at UVic’s Interfaith Chapel. The Faculty of Engineering has established the Dr. Trevor John Williams Memorial Fund to help advance Trevor’s research. Anyone wishing to make a donation may contact the Engineering Development office at 250-472-4210 or by e-mail at engralum@uvic.ca.

Submitted by Roxane Kelly, external relations officer, faculties of science and engineering