Beauchamp, James W. (1937-2022) | University of Illinois Archives

James Warren Beauchamp (1937-2022) was Professor Emeritus in both the School of Music and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois. Dr. Beauchamp received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Michigan, in 1960 and 1961 respectively. In 1965, he graduated from the University of Illinois with a PhD in electrical engineering. His dissertation was entitled Electronic Instrumentation for the Synthesis, Control, and Analysis of Harmonic Musical Tones. He worked closely with his mentor, chemist and composer Lejaren Hiller, during his PhD studies to create the Harmonic Tone Generator (HTG), funded by a Magnavox Corporation grant. The device was among the first voltage-controlled electronic music synthesizers. The HTG was used in a number of electronic music projects staged at the University of Illinois, including Salvatore Martirano's Underworld.

He joined the electrical and computer engineering faculty as an associate professor in 1965. Shortly after, he took a leave of absence which he spent working in Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He returned in 1969 to his joint appointment in electrical and computer engineering and music. He served as director of the School of Music's Experimental Music Studios from 1984 to 1993, during which time he headed the Hybrid Computer Project and the Computer Music Project. It was during this time that he programmed a number of concerts for the Computer Music Project, the most notable being Dexter Morrill in 1982 and Barry Truax in 1996.

He retired from the University of Illinois faculty in 1997, but remained an active researcher in his field and continued to write papers with former Ph.D. students, Andrew Horner and Rob Maher. Dr. Beauchamp was a fellow of both the Audio Engineering Society and the Acoustical Society of America. He was also a visiting scholar at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics and a visiting researcher at the Institut de recherche et coordination in acoustique musique (IRCAM) in Paris.

Dr. Beauchamp passed away in 2022. In 2024, his former student Rob Maher established the James W. Beauchamp Award for Interdisciplinary Research. The award is granted to an Electrical and Computer Engineering doctoral student who pursues "interdisciplinary creative work that transcends traditional department boundaries".