My father, Leslie Jesch, who has died aged 90, was a leading authority on the application of solar energy and a pioneer in the development of renewables internationally, and especially across Europe.
He was born László Jesch in Budapest, the son of László Jesch, an electrical engineer and college principal, and his wife Ilona (nee Láng), who before she married had supported her large family by making the popular Hungarian food tarhonya, a sort of egg-based pasta. From the Benedictine monks who educated him he developed a deep appreciation of European history and culture, and he learned several languages.
He graduated in engineering from university in Budapest and married Katalin Fekete, a research chemist, in 1953. After the Hungarian uprising of 1956, we crossed the border on a winter’s night to Austria where, as refugees, we were welcomed and looked after. We eventually settled in Pennsylvania, where Leslie used his expertise in thermodynamics and heat transfer in various jobs in industry.
After an MSc from the University of Pennsylvania (1962), Leslie did a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Leeds (1970), supervised by Prof Derek Bradley, whom he had first met at a youth congress in Hungary. The PhD brought about a change of both career and country when he took up a lectureship in mechanical engineering at the University of Birmingham. My mother and I moved with him and eventually we all became British citizens.
At Birmingham, Leslie developed his expertise in solar energy (he also dabbled in wind energy, a result of his passion for kite-flying) and set up a solar energy laboratory, which thrived and attracted PhD students from all over the world. Realising its potential, Leslie became active in the International Solar Energy Society, becoming its vice-president and receiving a special service award from the UK branch in 1999. He stimulated many European collaborations through ISES-Europe, of which he became president. He set up the Franklin Company, which provided consultancy in solar energy systems, and edited and published several solar journals, notably Sun at Work in Europe, giving work and a launch pad to many of his students. Leslie also wrote a monograph (Solar Energy Today, 1981) and a range of technical papers.
In Birmingham, my parents lived in Rowheath Solar Village in Bournville, which he had helped to design. In retirement, they pursued their lifelong interests in theatre, concerts and travelling, and their garden parties were legendary. Leslie is survived by my mother Katherine, who like him anglicised her name when in the US, and myself.
