Pravin Pratap Varaiya (29 October 1940 – 10 June 2022) was Nortel Networks Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering 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 ...

. Varaiya received his B.Sc. from

University of Bombay University of Mumbai is a public university, public List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, state university in Mumbai. It is one of the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest univ ...

and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 1963 from

. Varaiya has worked in the areas of

control 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 ...

communication networks A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, messag ...

and transportation systems. He is the author of ''High-Performance Communication Networks'' (with

Jean Walrand Jean Camille Walrand is a professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department at the University of California, Berkeley, and has been on the faculty of ...

and Andrea Goldsmith) (2nd edn., Morgan-Kaufmann, 2000). In 1980, Varaiya became 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 ...

(IEEE). In 1999, he was elected to membership 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 ...

and in 2006 he became Fellow of 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 ...

. In 2002, he received the

IEEE Control Systems Award The IEEE Control Systems Award is a technical field award given to an individual by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) "for outstanding contributions to control systems engineering, science or technology". It is an IEEE- ...

, "for outstanding contributions to stochastic and adaptive control and the unification of concepts from control and computer science". In 2008, he received the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award 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 ...

, "for pioneering contributions to stochastic control, hybrid systems and the unification of theories of control and computation". Varaiya was ranked within the top 100 scientists in the world in the field of Engineering and Technology. Varaiya died on 10 June 2022, due to injuries sustained when he was hit by a truck while out walking in April of that year.

References

1940 births 2022 deaths American control theorists American electrical engineers American people of Indian descent Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award recipients Fellows of the IEEE Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni 20th-century American engineers American telecommunications engineers People from Mumbai University of Mumbai alumni {{US-electrical-engineer-stub