Isaac Horowitz (December 15, 1920 - 2005) was a notable scientist with significant contributions to automatic
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 ...
. He developed and championed the
Quantitative Feedback Theory In control theory, quantitative feedback theory (QFT), developed by Isaac Horowitz (Horowitz, 1963; Horowitz and Sidi, 1972), is a frequency domain technique utilising the Nichols chart (NC) in order to achieve a desired robust design over a specif ...
which for the first time introduced a formal combination of the genuine frequency methodology founded by
Hendrik Bode
Hendrik Wade Bode ( ; ;Van Valkenburg, M. E. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "In memoriam: Hendrik W. Bode (1905-1982)", IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. AC-29, No 3., March 1984, pp. 193–194. Quote: "Something should be ...
with plant uncertainty considerations.
Biography
Isaac Horowitz was born one of 11 siblings in the
British mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to:
* Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan.
* Mandatory P ...
, modern
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, in the city of
Safed
Safed (known in Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת ''Tsfat'', Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Tzfas'', Biblical Hebrew: ''Ṣǝp̄aṯ''; ar, صفد, ''Ṣafad''), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevat ...
. His family moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
when he was five years old and shortly thereafter settled in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...
,
Manitoba
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, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
, Label_map = yes
, coordinates =
, capital = Win ...
, Canada. He received the B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics from the
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.[MIT
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 ...](_blank)
. Between 1951 and 1956, he was a full-time instructor and a part-time graduate student at the
Polytechnic University of New York
The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...
from which he obtained his M.E.E. and D.E.E..
References
External links
Quantitative Feedback Theory. In Memoriam of Isaac Horowitz*
Isaac M. Horowitz: An essential singularity in the complex domain of control theory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horowitz, Isaac
Control theorists
1920 births
2005 deaths
American people of Palestinian-Jewish descent
Canadian people of Palestinian-Jewish descent
Mandatory Palestine emigrants to the United States
American emigrants to Canada
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
University of Manitoba alumni