Alex Becker

Alex Becker, Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering, passed away on December 16, 2024, at the age of 89. Professor Becker was a leading scholar of applied geophysics who inspired generations of students, many of whom went on to professional careers in mineral and hydrocarbon exploration. 

Born in 1935, Professor Becker was a Polish Holocaust survivor who emigrated to Montreal after World War II. Between 1958 and 1964, he received his B.S., MS., and PhD degrees in Physics from McGill University and subsequently did postdoctoral work at the Centre de Recherches Geophysiques in France. 

In 1969, he was appointed to the faculty of École Polytechnique in Montreal, where he was managing director of the Mineral Exploration Research Institute and director of research for Questor Surveys. In 1981, Professor Becker joined Engineering Geoscience, the applied geophysics group in the Department of Materials Science and Mineral Engineering (MSME) at Berkeley. In the same year, he was appointed as a faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). During this period, he published numerous papers on near-surface electromagnetic systems for unexplained ordnance detection.

Professor Becker’s research focused on electromagnetic sensors and systems for subsurface mineral, petroleum, geothermal, groundwater, and environmental characterization. He taught numerous graduate classes in electromagnetic methods and an undergraduate class in applied geophysics. In 2001, along with other Mineral Engineering faculty, Alex moved to the GeoSystems Engineering group in CEE, where he continued teaching, research, and graduate advising activities until he retired from Berkeley a few years later. He continued doing active research at LBNL into his late 70s, publishing numerous papers on near-surface electromagnetic systems for Unexploded Ordnates (UXO) detection and characterization.

Professor Becker was an avid traveler, as his work took him to all seven continents. He also captained his own boat, named Sichera after his three granddaughters. After his retirement from the faculty, he also spent several years helping to restore an historic Half Moon Bay fishing vessel.