In Search of Light

Martha Salcudean grows up in the small village of Chiochis Romania, blissfully unaware of the fascist and anti-Semitic Iron Guard militia, and she quickly adapts to the abrupt change in her life when the town she lives in comes under the control of Hungary in 1940. But her childhood is soon marred by more political upheavals, and her parents cannot shelter her from the danger that looms for all Jews when Germany occupies Hungary in the spring of 1944. Forced into ghettos, Martha experiences such cruelty and hatred that at ten years old, she no longer feels like a child. Then Martha's fate changes in an instant with one split-second decision her father makes to board a different train—instead of going to Auschwitz she becomes one of those destined to be saved by Rudolf Kasztner, a man riskily negotiating with the Nazis. Although Martha and her parents are soon incarcerated in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, their status is somewhat protected, and their suffering and trauma ends when they are eventually sent to refuge in Switzerland. After the war, Martha and her parents return to Romania, but when the communist dictatorship takes hold, Martha again finds herself living in fear and unable to control her own life, and she is determined to escape with her new family to freedom.

Dr. Martha Salcudean was born on February 26, 1934, in Chiochi?, Romania. After the war, she earned a bachelor?s and post-graduate degrees in mechanical engineering. At Bucharest?s Research Centre for Metallurgy, she spent twelve years working in the area of heat transfer and fluids. After much effort, Martha left communist Romania, and in 1976 she came to Canada. From 1976 to 1985 she was a professor at the University of Ottawa, and in 1985 was appointed head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia, the first female to hold the position of engineering department head in Canada. Martha Salcudean has published extensively in the area of heat transfer and fluid flow, serves on numerous distinguished committees and advisory boards, and has received three honorary doctorates and a number of prestigious awards and honours in her field, including the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation (1993); the Engineering Institute of Canada?s Julian C. Smith Medal (1995); the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Award in Engineering (1998); the Order of British Columbia (1998); Officer of the Order of Canada (2004); and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012). Martha Salcudean is professor emeritus at UBC and lives in Vancouver.