Jean Landry (engineer)

Jean Landry (born October 3, 1875 in Meudon, Les Verrières ; † June 17, 1940 in Lausanne ) was a Swiss electrical engineer , known for his leading role in the electrification of French-speaking Switzerland .

Life

Landry was the fourteenth child of a wine and timber merchant. He went to high school in Neuchâtel and studied mechanical engineering at the ETH Zurich from 1894 to 1898 . He then worked as an engineer at the electrical company Compagnie de l'Industrie Électrique (later Sécheron ) and then a consulting engineer in Lausanne. In 1902 he became professor of electrical engineering at EPFL (then École d'ingénieurs de l'Université de Lausanne), of which he became director in 1919. In the same year he founded EOS (Energie de l'Ouest Suisse), with which he drove the electrification of French-speaking Switzerland, as had already been started in German-speaking Switzerland. In 1927 he took over the management of the Dixence power plant, which was under construction (and completed in 1935) . He also got to know the civil engineer Alfred Stucky , whom he brought to EPFL, where he succeeded as rector after his death in 1940 (as a result of a stroke).

In 1912 he became president of the SEV , of which he became an honorary member in 1919. In 1939 he headed the electricity section at the Swiss National Exhibition in Zurich.

Web links

• Thomas Fuchs: Landry, Jean. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Biography at Electrosuisse (PDF; 29 kB)