Michael Athans, Tam 1954 (AFS) - Professor Emeritus, MIT

Michael Athans (formerly Athanasiadis) was born in Drama, Macedonia, Greece on May 3, 1937. He came to the United States in 1954 for a one year exchange visit under the auspices of the American Field Service and he attended... See more » Michael Athans (formerly Athanasiadis) was born in Drama, Macedonia, Greece on May 3, 1937. He came to the United States in 1954 for a one year exchange visit under the auspices of the American Field Service and he attended Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. Next he attended the University of California at Berkeley from 1955 to 1961 where he received his BSEE in 1958 (with highest honors), MSEE in 1959, and Ph.D. in control in 1961. From 1961 to 1964 he was employed as a member of the technical staff at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Mass. where he conducted research in optimal control and estimation theory. Since 1964 he has been a faculty member in the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, where he currently holds the rank of Professor. He also was the director of the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (formerly the Electronic Systems Laboratory) from 1974 to 1981. In 1978 he co-founded ALPHATECH Inc., Burlington Mass., where he serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Scientific Consultant. He has also consulted for numerous other industrial organizations and government panels. He has acted as the thesis supervisor for 42 MIT doctoral students to date. In 1995 he was Visiting Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Research Prof. Athans' research interests and contributions span the areas of * optimum system and estimation theory * multivariable control systems and the application of these methodologies to * defense * large space structures * IVHS transportation systems * aerospace * power * economic models * C3 systems and he has authored or co-authored over 325 technical papers and reports. Textbooks Dr. Athans is the co-author of * Optimal Control (McGraw Hill, 1966) * Systems, Networks and Computation: Basic Concepts (McGraw Hill, 1972) * Multivariable Methods (McGraw Hill, 1974) and in 1974 he also developed 65 color TV lectures and study guides on Modern Control Theory, distributed by the MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study. Awards Prof. Athans has been honored with a number of awards, including * American Automatic Control Council's Donald P. Eckman Award "for outstanding contributions to the field of automatic control" (first recipient of the award, 1964) * American Society for Engineering Education's Frederick E. Terman Award as "the outstanding young electrical engineering educator" (first recipient, 1969) * American Control Council's Education Award for "outstanding contributions and distinguished leadership in automatic control education" (second recipient, 1980) * Fellow of the IEEE (1973) * Fellow of the AAAS (1977) * Distinguished Member of the IEEE Control Systems Society (1983) * IEEE Control Systems Society's 1993 H.W. Bode Prize, including the delivery of the prestigious Bode Plenary Lecture at the 1993 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control His latest award is the American Automatic Control Council's Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award "In Recognition of a Distinguished Career in Automatic Control; As a Leader and Champion of Innovative Research; As a Contributor to Fundamental Knowledge in Optimal, Adaptive, Robust, Decentralized and Distributed Control; and as a Mentor to his Students" presented in June 1995 at the American Control Conference. Associations Prof. Athans has served in numerous committees of * IEEE * IFAC * AACC * AAAS and he was president of the IEEE Control systems Society from 1972 to 1974. In addition he is a member of * AIAA * Phi Beta Kappa * Eta Kappa Nu * Sigma Xi He has served as Associate Editor of * IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control * Journal of Dynamic Systems and Control * Automatica Last modified 15 February 1996 wmcd@mit.edu (W. McDermott) See less »

Professor Emeritus at MIT, USA and Visiting Scientist at Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal. BSEE 1958; MSEE 1959; PhD in control 1958, all from UC Berkley. Technical staff at MIT Lincoln Lab. 1961-64; director of MIT Lab. For...