1941 yılında doğdu. İlk, orta ve lise öğrenimini Ankara’da tamamladı. 1963 yılında ODTÜ Yüksek Elektrik Mühendisliği’ni bitirdi. Doktora eğitimini Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn’de haberleşme kuramı üzerine tamamladı. ODTÜ’ye öğretim üyesi olarak geri döndü. 1978 yılında doçent oldu.
12 Eylül 1980 darbesi sonrasında Elazığ`a atandı. Birkaç ay sonra 1402 sayılı yasayla görevinden alındı. Bunun üzerine Florida Institute of Technology’e girerek elektrik mühendisliğinin matematik içeriği yüksek alanında dersler verdi.
Matematiğin uygulamaları kadar içsel güzelliğini de algılayıp sevdi. ‘Kim Korkar Matematikten’i oluşturan yazılarının çoğunu Bilim ve Sanat dergisi için yazdı.
1999 yılında Amerika`da vefat etti.
ENGLISH BIOGRAPHY
Nazif Tepedelenlioğlu (1941-1999) Nazif Tepedelenlioğlu received his BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from METU Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department in 1962 and 1963, respectively. He went to the USA in 1964 and received his PhD degree from the Polytechnical Institute of Brooklyn in January 1969. In METU, Dr. Tepedelenlioğlu first served as an assistant (1962-1963 ) and after his rejoining in 1969, he worked in the positions of instructor (1969), assistant professor (1969-78), and associate professor (1978-1983). He was the chairman of METU Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department between 1970 and 1971. He lectured on many subjects, including telecommunications, electronics, signal processing, stochastic processes and linear systems. He established the telecommunications group of the METU Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department; supervised many MS and PhD theses, and contributed a lot to the education of faculty, not only in METU, but also in other universities. He supervised many projects for the government and industry.
He was dismissed in September 1983 according to a military junta law No.1402, which had to be executed without giving any explanation neither to the employee nor the employer. He had to go abroad, since the law No.1402 did not allow its victims to be reemployed by any other institution of the government. Dr. Tepedelenlioğlu then worked (1983-1999) as a professor at Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), where he supervised NASA projects and was selected by FIT students continuously as the best educator of the year. Many of his research work had impacts on industrial applications in the USA.