Prof. Jean Robert was born in Montmédy, France, on September 20th in 1925. He received the Engineer degree from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Électricité et de Mécanique de Nancy (ENSEM, France) in 1949, the Ph.D. degree from the University of Nancy in 1954, and the D.Sc. degree from the University of Paris in 1969. He was a professor of Electrical Engineering at Laval University, Québec City, Canada, from 1958 to 1972, and at the Institut Montefiore, University of Liège, Belgium from 1973 to his retirement. During his academic career, he also worked as a consultant for electrical utilities, especially Hydro-Québec. He has published more than 60 technical papers, one book as a coauthor on the signal flow-graphs, which was translated into four languages, and four books on the modeling of electrical machines and devices as an editor. Professor Jean Robert was a precursor in the development of the simulation techniques for electrical machines and power systems using signal flow-graphs. In 1976, he was founding the TC1 committee on Modeling and Simulation of Electrical Machines of the International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (IMACS). Its main objective was to establish a high standard international meeting point for presenting new results in modeling and simulation in the various fields of electrical engineering. He was chairman of the first IMACS TC1 Conference in Liège in 1984, Chairman and Honorary Chairman of the IMACS TC1 International Committee until 2006.  Prof. Robert was a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE Industry Applications Society), a senior member of the Société Française des Électriciens and a member of the Société Royale Belge des Électriciens, where he was a scientific advisor. For his accomplishments in the development of simulation techniques for electrical machines and power systems and for his contributions to higher education, he was awarded by the AIEE in Montréal in 1962. He received the scientific prize of the Québec province in 1961 and the Omer de Bast Award in Liège for 1971-1973. He was a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques (France). Jean Robert died on October 7th 2006 in Liège (Belgium).