Sydney Self, engineering professor at Stanford University, dies at 89

Sidney A. Self, a professor in Stanford University’s engineering department and a Ladera resident who enjoyed building homes with his wife Beryl, died on Nov. 5. He was 89.

Mr. Self was a native of England and a graduate in physics from the University of Exeter. While working as a government researcher, he and his wife converted three farm-worker cottages into a home in an English village.

Mr. Self and his family came to California in 1962 for a visiting professorship at Stanford. They bought a house in Ladera and lived many years there.

On the Stanford faculty, he researched plasmas, magnetohydrodynamics and electrostatic precipitation and wrote more than 150 papers. He received two lifetime achievement awards.

The couple built a vacation home near Pescadero and later relocated to Menlo Park. Beryl Self died in 2016.

Mr. Self is survived by two children, Joanna and Matthew, and two grandchildren.

Go to is.gd/SelfMemory for more and to leave remembrances.