Lofti Zadeh
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Lotfi Aliasger Zadeh (; ; ; 4 February 1921 – 6 September 2017) was a mathematician, computer scientist, electrical engineer, artificial intelligence researcher, and professor of
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
. Zadeh is best known for proposing
fuzzy mathematics Fuzzy mathematics is the branch of mathematics including fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic that deals with partial inclusion of elements in a set on a spectrum, as opposed to simple binary "yes" or "no" (0 or 1) inclusion. It started in 1965 a ...
, consisting of several ''fuzzy''-related concepts:
fuzzy set Fuzzy or Fuzzies may refer to: Music * Fuzzy (band), a 1990s Boston indie pop band * Fuzzy (composer), Danish composer Jens Vilhelm Pedersen (born 1939) * Fuzzy (album), ''Fuzzy'' (album), 1993 debut album of American rock band Grant Lee Buffalo ...
s,
fuzzy logic Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely ...
, fuzzy algorithms, fuzzy semantics, fuzzy languages,
fuzzy control A fuzzy control system is a control system based on fuzzy logic – a mathematical system that analyzes analog input values in terms of logical variables that take on continuous values between 0 and 1, in contrast to classical or digital logi ...
,
fuzzy systems A fuzzy control system is a control system based on fuzzy logic – a mathematics, mathematical system that analyzes analog signal, analog input values in terms of mathematical logic, logical variables that take on continuous values between 0 ...
, fuzzy probabilities, fuzzy events, and fuzzy information. Zadeh was a founding member of the Eurasian Academy.


Early life and career


Azerbaijan

Zadeh was born in
Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
,
Azerbaijan SSR The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union be ...
, as Lotfi Aliasgerzadeh. McNeil & Freiberger, p. 17 His father was Rahim Aleskerzade, an Iranian Muslim Azerbaijani journalist from
Ardabil Ardabil (, ) is a city in northwestern Iran. It is in the Central District (Ardabil County), Central District of Ardabil County, Ardabil province, Ardabil province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. The ...
on assignment from Iran, and his mother was Fanya (Feyga) Korenman, a
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
pediatrician Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their youth ...
from
Odesa, Ukraine Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrat ...
, who was an Iranian citizen.Gale, Thomson
Lotfi Asker Zadeh Biography
''World of Computer Science''
The Soviet government at this time courted foreign correspondents, and the family lived well while in Baku. McNeil & Freiberger, p. 18 Zadeh attended elementary school for three years there, which he said "had a significant and long-lasting influence on my thinking and my way of looking at things."


Iran

In 1931, when Stalin began agricultural collectivization, and Zadeh was ten, his father moved his family back to
Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...
, Iran. Zadeh was enrolled in
Alborz High School Alborz High School () is a college-preparatory gifted high school located in the heart of Tehran, Iran. It is one of the first modern high schools in Asia and the Middle East, named after the Alborz mountain range, north of Tehran. Its place in th ...
, a missionary school, where he was educated for the next eight years, and where he met his future wife, Fay (Faina) Zadeh, who said that he was "deeply influenced" by the "extremely decent, fine, honest and helpful"
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
missionaries from the United States who ran the college. "To me they represented the best that you could find in the United States – people from the Midwest with strong roots. They were really 'Good Samaritans' – willing to give of themselves for the benefit of others. So this kind of attitude influenced me deeply. It also instilled in me a deep desire to live in the United States." During this time, Zadeh was awarded several
patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
. Zadeh sat for the Iran national university exams and placed third in the nation. As a student, he ranked first in his class in his first two years. In 1942, he graduated from the
University of Tehran The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...
with a degree in
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
, one of only three students in that field to graduate that year, due to the turmoil created by
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, when the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran. Over 30,000 American soldiers were based there, and Zadeh worked with his father, who did business with them as a contractor for hardware and building materials. McNeil & Freiberger, p. 19


United States

In 1943, Zadeh decided to leave for the United States to continue his education. He travelled to
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
by way of
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
after months of delay waiting first for the proper papers and later for the right ship to appear. He arrived in mid-1944, lived in New York and worked for an electronic association, and entered the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
(MIT) as a graduate student in September that year. While in the United States, he shortened his family name, creating a new middle name from the part he removed, and was thenceforth known as Lotfi Aliasker Zadeh. He received an
MS degree A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...
in electrical engineering from MIT in 1946. In 1947, as his parents had settled in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, Zadeh went to work as an engineer at Columbia University. Zadeh then applied to
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
. Columbia admitted him as a doctoral student and offered him an instructorship as well. He received his
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in electrical engineering from Columbia in 1949 and became an assistant professor the next year. Zadeh taught for ten years at Columbia and was promoted to
full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...
in 1957. The chairman of the electronic engineering department at the University of California, wrote and offered him work. In 1959, Zadeh joined the Electrical Engineering faculty at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
. During his lengthy research career, Zadeh made important scientific contributions in two distinct areas: (1) linear system theory and classical control systems, and (2) fuzzy sets, fuzzy logic, and related science and technology. Zadeh was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 for Natural Sciences in Applied Mathematics. Zadeh's first important research contribution, well known among scholars of his generation in the electrical engineering community, was in the area of classical control systems. His pioneer work, co-authored with
Charles Desoer Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...
, ''Linear System Theory: The State Space Approach,'' laid a critical foundation for all modern approaches to system analysis and control. The second and more well-known contribution of Zadeh's research is his lifelong dedication to the creation, enhancement and the real-world impacts of a broad collection of science and technology based on fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic. He published his seminal work on
fuzzy sets Fuzzy or Fuzzies may refer to: Music * Fuzzy (band), a 1990s Boston indie pop band * Fuzzy (composer), Danish composer Jens Vilhelm Pedersen (born 1939) * Fuzzy (album), ''Fuzzy'' (album), 1993 debut album of American rock band Grant Lee Buffalo ...
in 1965, in which he described the motivation of replicating human-like reasoning and detailed the mathematics of fuzzy set theory. In 1973 he proposed his theory of
fuzzy logic Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely ...
. Together, fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic provide the necessary foundations for a broad class of related innovations, including (but not limited to): * fuzzy control – a practical approach to non-linear control using fuzzy if-then rules in fuzzy logic * fuzzy pattern recognition – a generalization of conventional pattern recognition techniques using fuzzy sets (e.g., fuzzy k-means generalizes k-means clustering) * fuzzy database – generalizes classical database query language using fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic * fuzzy mathematics – generalizes conventional mathematics using fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic *
neuro-fuzzy In the field of artificial intelligence, the designation neuro-fuzzy refers to combinations of artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic. Overview Neuro-fuzzy hybridization results in a hybrid intelligent system that combines the human-like reas ...
systems – a synergistic combination of fuzzy logic and neural networks, providing the first interpretable AI system based on neural network learning He was also on the Board of Governors for International Neural Network Society (INNS) in 2003.


Impacts to higher education

Zadeh became the Chair of Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1963. One of the lasting impacts of his leadership in this role is the expansion and the integration of computer science. He initiated and completed (in 1968) the transformation of the Electrical Engineering department at UC Berkeley to the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). This strategic move not only led UC Berkeley's advancement into the top ranks of computer science education and research, but also led other research universities globally to add computer science to their electrical engineering departments. In 1973, Zadeh received the prestigious (Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers) IEEE Education Award, largely in recognition of his performance as chair of EE and then EECS. Other important services to UC Berkeley include his Academic Senate committee memberships: Academic Planning & Resource Allocation (1992–95); Committees (1969–70; 1980–81); Courses of Instruction (1975–80); and Faculty Awards (1990–92). Professor Zadeh graduated more than 50 PhD students, many of whom went on to become leaders in various areas of engineering, management and information sciences.


Personal life and beliefs

Zadeh photographed people around him. Zadeh was called "quick to shrug off nationalism, insisting there are much deeper issues in life", and was quoted as saying in an interview: "The question really isn't whether I'm American, Russian, Iranian, Azerbaijani, or anything else. I've been shaped by all these people and cultures, and I feel quite comfortable among all of them." He noted in the same interview: "Obstinacy and tenacity, not being afraid to get embroiled in controversy – that's very much a Turkish tradition. That's part of my character, too. I can be very stubborn. That has probably been beneficial for the development of fuzzy logic." He described himself as "an American, mathematically oriented, electrical engineer of Iranian descent, born in Russia." He and his wife Fay Zadeh had two children, Stella and Norman Zada. His wife wrote a book, ''My Life and Travels with the Father of Fuzzy Logic'' about their travels and experiences together, visiting "exotic places" and meeting interesting people around the world. Zadeh died in his home in
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
, on 6 September 2017, at the age of 96. He was buried at the First Alley of Honors, on 29 September 2017 in
Baku, Azerbaijan Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
, the city in which he was born. His funeral was well attended by "highly respected people." A month prior to his death, the
University of Tehran The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...
had released an erroneous report that Zadeh had died, but withdrew it several days later.


Work

According to
Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...
, as of November 2021, Zadeh's work has been cited at least 269,091 times in scholarly works, with the 1965 ''Fuzzy sets'' paper receiving at least 122,743 citations.


Fuzzy sets and systems

Zadeh, in his theory of
fuzzy set Fuzzy or Fuzzies may refer to: Music * Fuzzy (band), a 1990s Boston indie pop band * Fuzzy (composer), Danish composer Jens Vilhelm Pedersen (born 1939) * Fuzzy (album), ''Fuzzy'' (album), 1993 debut album of American rock band Grant Lee Buffalo ...
s, proposed using a
membership function In mathematics, an indicator function or a characteristic function of a subset of a set is a function that maps elements of the subset to one, and all other elements to zero. That is, if is a subset of some set , then the indicator function o ...
(with a
range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...
covering the interval ,1 operating on the
domain A domain is a geographic area controlled by a single person or organization. Domain may also refer to: Law and human geography * Demesne, in English common law and other Medieval European contexts, lands directly managed by their holder rather ...
of all possible values. He proposed new operations for the calculus of logic and showed that
fuzzy logic Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely ...
was a generalisation of classical and Boolean
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...
. He also proposed
fuzzy number A fuzzy number is a generalization of a regular real number in the sense that it does not refer to one single value but rather to a connected set of possible values, where each possible value has its own weight between 0 and 1. This weight is call ...
s as a special case of fuzzy sets, as well as the corresponding rules for consistent mathematical operations (fuzzy arithmetic).


Fuzzy logic and artificial intelligence

Zadeh's research career has had a lasting impact on artificial intelligence (AI). Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic are both motivated by our understanding of human cognition: that we are comfortable with concepts that have vague boundaries. This is well aligned with the
Physical symbol system A physical symbol system (also called a formal system) takes physical patterns (symbols), combining them into structures (expressions) and manipulating them (using processes) to produce new expressions. The physical symbol system hypothesis (PSSH ...
assumption in AI (by
Allen Newell Allen Newell (March 19, 1927 – July 19, 1992) was an American researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND Corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and D ...
and
Herbert A. Simon Herbert Alexander Simon (June 15, 1916 â€“ February 9, 2001) was an American scholar whose work influenced the fields of computer science, economics, and cognitive psychology. His primary research interest was decision-making within organi ...
), inspired by another aspect of human cognition: that humans are comfortable with concepts that are described by symbols. The concept of a linguistic variable in fuzzy logic connects a symbol that is typically a predicate in classical logic (e.g., "John is Bold", or in
predicate logic First-order logic, also called predicate logic, predicate calculus, or quantificational logic, is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantified variables ove ...
– Bold(John)) – to linguistic values (e.g., "John is somewhat bold." or in fuzzy logic – Bold(John)=Somewhat ) – which generalizes the binary value of predicate logic in two ways. First, the two possible values (True or False) in predicate logic are generalized to a continuum (typically from 0, which corresponds to False, to 1, which corresponds to True). This allows the expression of Bold(John)= 0.5, which indicates that John is midway between being devoid of boldness and being entirely bold. The second generalization enabled by fuzzy logic is to use a fuzzy set such as "somewhat bold" to describe a person's boldness level in a way that is more natural to human understanding and communication. Without this generalization, we can only describe the value of a person's boldness as a number (e.g., 0.5) or as an interval (e.g., .25, 0.75. With this generalization, one can express the semantic meaning of "somewhat bold" as a fuzzy set in the domain of 0 and 1. Zadeh was also an active contributor to the AI community, including at the
Dartmouth Workshop The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence was a 1956 summer workshop widely consideredKline, Ronald R., "Cybernetics, Automata Studies and the Dartmouth Conference on Artificial Intelligence", ''IEEE Annals of the History ...
that coined the term "artificial intelligence". He was subsequently a frequent contributor to leading AI conferences such as AAAI and IJCAI, as well as other top venues such as AI Magazine.


Other contributions

Zadeh is credited, along with John R. Ragazzini, in 1952, with having pioneered the development of the
Z-transform In mathematics and signal processing, the Z-transform converts a discrete-time signal, which is a sequence of real or complex numbers, into a complex valued frequency-domain (the z-domain or z-plane) representation. It can be considered a dis ...
method in discrete time
signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, Scalar potential, potential fields, Seismic tomograph ...
and analysis. These methods are now standard in
digital signal processing Digital signal processing (DSP) is the use of digital processing, such as by computers or more specialized digital signal processors, to perform a wide variety of signal processing operations. The digital signals processed in this manner are a ...
,
digital control Digital control is a branch of control theory that uses Digital data, digital computers to act as system controllers. Depending on the requirements, a digital control system can take the form of a microcontroller to an Application-specific integr ...
, and other discrete-time systems used in industry and research. He was an editor of the ''International Journal of Computational Cognition''. Zadeh's work also included
computing with words and perceptions In computing with words and perceptions (CWP), the objects of computation are words, perceptions, and propositions drawn from a natural language. The central theme of CWP is the concept of a generalised constraint. The meaning of a proposition ...
. His later papers include "From Search Engines to Question-Answering Systems" and "Toward a Generalized Theory of Uncertainty (GTU)—An Outline".


Selected publications

A complete list of publications is available. * * * * * * * * * * * *


Lectures

* 1991
Fuzzy logic: principles, perspectives, and applications
Lecture sponsored by the Dept. of Electrical and Computer engineering, University of California, San Diego. Electrical and Computer Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series. Digital Object Made Available by UC San Diego Library.


Awards and honors

Zadeh was a
Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...
, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
, the
Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...
, the
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is an international Learned society, scientific society devoted to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence. AAAI also aims to increase public under ...
and the International Fuzzy Systems Association, and a
member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...
of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
. He was also a member of the Academies of Science of
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
,
Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
,
Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
,
Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
and
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, and of the
International Academy of Systems Studies International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...
in
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. He received 24 honorary doctorates. Awards received by Zadeh include, among many others: *
IEEE Education Medal The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...
; 1973 *
Eringen Medal The A. C. Eringen Medal or Eringen Medal is an award given annually bthe Society of Engineering Science(SES) to an individual "in recognition of sustained outstanding achievements in Engineering Science". This award was established in 1976. The ...
; 1976 * IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, for "seminal contributions to information science and systems, including the conceptualization of fuzzy sets"; 1992 *
American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing edu ...
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 ...
; 1993. * Honorary Professorship from the
Azerbaijan State Oil Academy Azerbaijan State Oil and Industrial University (formerly Azerbaijan State Oil Academy) () is a tertiary education institution in Baku, Azerbaijan. History The rise of what became ASOIU is tied to the rise of the petroleum industry in the Ba ...
; 1993 *
IEEE Medal of Honor The IEEE Medal of Honor is the highest recognition of the American Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It has been awarded since 1917, and is presented to an individual or team of up to three who have made exceptional contri ...
, for "pioneering development of fuzzy logic and its many diverse applications"; 1995 *
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 ...
's
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 ...
; 1998. * ACM Allen Newell Award; 2001 * Outstanding Contribution Award, Web Intelligence Consortium (WIC), Halifax, Canada, 2003. * Wall of Fame, Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum (HNF), Paderborn, Germany, 2004. * V. Kaufmann Prize and Gold Medal, International Association for Fuzzy-Set Management and Economy (SIGEF), Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 15, 2004. * J. Keith Brimacombe IPMM Award in recognition of his development of fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic, 2005. * Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering from
The Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...
in Philadelphia, for inventing and developing the field of "fuzzy logic"; 2009 * Induction into the
IEEE Intelligent Systems ''IEEE Intelligent Systems'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the IEEE Computer Society and sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), British Computer Society (BCS), and European As ...
' AI's Hall of Fame, 2011, "for his work on
soft computing Soft computing is an umbrella term used to describe types of algorithms that produce approximate solutions to unsolvable high-level problems in computer science. Typically, traditional hard-computing algorithms heavily rely on concrete data and ma ...
, fuzzy logic, and neural-net theory". *
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards () are an international award programme recognizing significant contributions in the areas of scientific research and cultural creation. The categories that make up the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards ...
in the category of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Spain, 2012. * Honorary Doctor of the
Óbuda University The Óbuda University (, ), named after Óbuda, a part of Budapest, is a university in Budapest, Hungary. History It was founded in 2000 as Budapest Tech () with the merging of three polytechnical institutes: Bánki Donát Technical College ...
(
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
,
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
) 2011 *
Golden Goose Award The Golden Goose Award is a United States award in recognition of scientists whose federally funded basic research has led to innovations or inventions with significant impact on humanity or society. Created by Congressman Jim Cooper of Tennessee ...
, for Fuzzy Logic; 2017


Legacy

In 2014, the
IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society The IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (IEEE SMCS) is a professional society of the IEEE. It aims "to serve the interests of its members and the community at large by promoting the theory, practice, and interdisciplinary aspects of system ...
established the "Lotfi A. Zadeh Pioneer Award", which is given to honour a person or persons with "outstanding and pioneering contributions to academic and/or industrial research in systems science and engineering, human-machine systems, and/or cybernetics." The award is funded from a $100,000 donation from Zadeh's son, Norm Zadeh, and is administered by the IEEE. Nominees must have "pioneered and developed innovative research, executed in either academe or industry," that has resulted in major scientific advances in "systems science and engineering, human-machine systems, and/or cybernetics." Contributions must have been made at least 15 years prior to the award date. In February 2019,
ADA University ADA University (ADA) () is a public university established under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan in March 2006 by Hafiz Pashayev. History ADA University was established on January 13, 2014, by a presidential decree as a state hi ...
in
Baku, Azerbaijan Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
presented the first "Lotfi Zadeh Scholarships", which honour the academic success of undergraduate students in the university's School of IT and Engineering. Winners of the scholarship receive a complete tuition waiver for the semester or semester-equivalent in which they achieved a 4.0 average. On 4 February 2021, the
IEEE Computational Intelligence Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...
and the International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA) jointly celebrated the centenary of Zadeh's birth. On 30 November 2021,
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
honored Zadeh with a
Google Doodle Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...
. His seminal paper ''Fuzzy sets'' was submitted for publication on this day in 1964.


See also

*
Concept of Stratification Concept of Stratification, labelled CST by Prof Lotfi A. Zadeh, was proposed in 2016. Zadeh states that it is a reform in conventional problem solving methods by the consideration of a recursive problem solving approach. Note that this concept sho ...


References


Citations


General bibliography

*


Further reading

* * * Zadeh, Lofti A. "Lotfi Visions", two-part interview with Jack J. Woehr, ''Dr. Dobb's Journal''
July 1994 (part 1)
an
August 1994 (part 2)
* * * Trillas, Enric
In Memory of L.A. Zadeh
Mathware & soft computing, ISSN-e 1134–5632, Vol. 24, Nº. 2, 2017, págs. 16-18 * I. Dzitac, F.G. Filip, M.J. Manolescu
Fuzzy Logic Is Not Fuzzy: World-renowned Computer Scientist Lotfi A. Zadeh
International Journal of Computers Communications & Control (December), Vol 12 No 6 (2017), 748–789. *


External links



, Academic profile, College of Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
* * Dubois, Didier; Prade, Henri. * Azerbaijan International: ** Lotfi Zadeh (interview)
Reflections on the Beginnings of "Fuzzy Logic"
in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 2:4 (1994), pp. 46–47. ** Lotfi Zadeh, Berkeley Commencement Speech

in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 6:1 (Spring 1998), p. 65. **

(reflecting on his childhood) in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 7:4 (Winter 1999), pp. 28–29. ** Lotfi Zadeh:

. Azerbaijan International, Vol. 2:4 (Winter 1994), p. 49. * Lotfi Zadeh, Honorary Chair and Keynote Speaker
ICCCC 2008
Agora University of Oradea The agora (; , romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Greek city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center of the athletic, artist ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zadeh, Lotfali 1921 births 2017 deaths Artificial intelligence researchers Alborz High School alumni Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Control theorists IEEE Medal of Honor recipients Fellows of the IEEE Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Azerbaijani logicians American logicians American computer scientists Iranian computer scientists Scientists from Baku Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award recipients Systems scientists UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty Columbia University faculty MIT School of Engineering alumni University of Tehran alumni Iranian electrical engineers Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Iranian expatriate academics in the United States American people of Azerbaijani-Jewish descent Soviet emigrants to Iran Iranian emigrants to the United States Soviet Azerbaijani people Burials at Alley of Honor Iranian logicians American people of Russian-Jewish descent Azerbaijani people of Iranian descent Azerbaijani people of Jewish descent 20th-century Iranian mathematicians 21st-century Iranian mathematicians Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates 1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery