Petr Beckmann (1924-1993) was a physicist who defected to the United States from Czechoslovakia in 1963 and became a Professor of electrical engineering at the University of Colorado. 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... A physicist is a scientist trained in physics. ... A defector is generally a person who gives up allegiance to a certain country in exchange for allegiance to another. ... Electrical engineering or electrotechnology is an engineering discipline that deals with the study and application of electricity and electromagnetism. ... The University of Colorado (CU) System consists of five campuses: University of Colorado at Boulder University of Colorado at Colorado Springs University of Colorado at Denver University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Fitzsimons campus of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, scheduled to open in 2007 in Aurora, Colorado...

He was a prolific scientific author; he wrote several electrical engineering textbooks and non-technical works, including The Health Hazards of Not Going Nuclear (Golem Press, 1976), a book promoting nuclear power during the height of the anti-nuclear movement. He also wrote one of the most captivating and insightful books of its kind, A History of Pi, documenting the history of the calculation of π. He published his own newsletter, Access to Energy (www.accesstoenergy.com), now written by Arthur B. Robinson. Beckmann's last issue was published in August 1993. He passed away at that time and the next issue, September 1993, was done by Robinson. The word author has several meanings: The author of a book, story, article or the like, is the person who has written it (or is writing it). ... Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear reactions to do useful work (another term in use is Atomic Energy). ... Lower-case pi The mathematical constant Ï€ is a real number which may be defined as the ratio of a circles circumference (Greek περιφέρεια, periphery) to its diameter in Euclidean geometry, and which is in common use in mathematics, physics, and engineering. ... Arthur B. Robinson is founder, president and professor of chemistry at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, where he conducts research on protein chemistry and on nutrition and predictive and preventive medicine. ...

Beckmann was also a frequent and colorful participant in Usenet debates. In them, he claimed to have debunked Albert Einstein's theory of relativity in his book Einstein Plus 2, as well as in another self-published journal, Galilean Electrodynamics. The History of π also expresses his intense and colorful opposition to Catholicism, Naziism, and Communism - all of which have controlled Czechoslovakia. Usenet is a distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ... Albert Einstein photographed by Oren J. Turner in 1947. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Galilean Electrodynamics is a scientific journal devoted to the critical analysis of theories such as relativity and quantum mechanics. ... This article considers Catholicism in the broadest ecclesiastical sense. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... Communism refers to a theoretical system of social organization and a political movement based on common ownership of the means of production. ...