Roger Ware Brockett (born October 22, 1938 in

Seville, Ohio Seville is a village in Medina County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,296 at the 2010 census. History Seville was platted in 1828. It was named after Seville, in Spain. A post office was established in Seville in 1830. Geography Sev ...

) is an American

control theorist Control may refer to: Basic meanings Economics and business * Control (management), an element of management * Control, an element of management accounting * Comptroller (or controller), a senior financial officer in an organization * Controlling ...

and the

An Wang An Wang (; February 7, 1920 – March 24, 1990) was a Chinese–American computer engineer and inventor, and cofounder of computer company Wang Laboratories, which was known primarily for its dedicated word processing machines. Wang was an impo ...

Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, who founded th
Harvard Robotics Laboratory
in 1983. Brockett became a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

in 1991 for outstanding contributions to the theory and practice of linear and nonlinear control systems.

Biography

Brockett was born on October 22, 1938 in Seville, Ohio to Roger Lawrence and Grace Ester (Patch) Brockett. Brockett received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

from Case Western Reserve University in 1960, and continued on to receive his

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in 1962 and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in 1964 from Case Western Reserve University as well. His Ph.D. dissertation was ''The Invertibility of Dynamic Systems with Application to Control'' under the supervision of

Mihajlo D. Mesarovic Mihajlo D. Mesarovic ( Serbian Latin: ''Mihajlo D. Mesarović'', Serbian Cyrillic: Михајло Д. Месаровић; born 2 July 1928) is a Serbian scientist, who is a professor of Systems Engineering and Mathematics at Case Western Reser ...

. After teaching at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

from 1963 to 1969, he joined the faculty at

. At Harvard, Brockett became the Gordon McKay Professor of

Applied Mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathemati ...

and in 1989 the

Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Brockett is known for his work on

control theory Control theory is a field of mathematics that deals with the control of dynamical systems in engineered processes and machines. The objective is to develop a model or algorithm governing the application of system inputs to drive the system to a ...

and linear differential systems; in 1970 he published the textbook ''Finite Dimensional Linear Systems.'' Brockett has advised over 50 students, including Daniel Liberzon, Jan Willems, David Dobkin, John Baras, P. S. Krishnaprasad, and

John Baillieul John Baillieul (born May 13, 1945) is an American control theorist and distinguished professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. Baillieul is a fellow of the International Federation of Automatic Control, the Instit ...

Awards and honors

Brockett received several awards and honors, including: *

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) since 1974 * Member of the

in 1991 * In 1989 the

Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award The Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award is an annual award (since 1979) given by the American Automatic Control Council (AACC) for achievements in control theory, named after the applied mathematician Richard E. Bellman. The award is given fo ...

from the

American Automatic Control Council The American Automatic Control Council (AACC) is an organization founded in 1957 for research in control theory. AACC is a member of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) and is an association of the control systems divisions of ...

* In 1991 the

IEEE Control Systems Science and Engineering Award The IEEE Control Systems Award is a Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers#Technical field awards, technical field award given to an individual by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) "for outstanding contributio ...

* In 1996 the "W.T. and Idalia Reid Prize in Mathematics" from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics * In 2005 the

Rufus Oldenburger Medal The Rufus Oldenburger Medal is an award given by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers recognizing significant contributions and outstanding achievements in the field of automatic control. It was established in 1968 in the honor of Rufus O ...

from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers * In 2009 the IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award * In 2012 he became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

Trivia

* Roger Brockett and

Donald Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer sc ...

were classmates at Case Western

References

External links

Brockett's web page
at Harvard

at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brockett, Roger W. American computer scientists Case Western Reserve University alumni Control theorists Fellow Members of the IEEE John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty MIT School of Engineering faculty American roboticists Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award recipients 1938 births Living people Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering People from Seville, Ohio Engineers from Ohio