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 land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Varaiya received his B.Sc. from

University of Bombay The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

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

. Varaiya has worked in the areas of control, communication networks and

transportation systems Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pip ...

. 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 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 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...

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

and in 2006 he became Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) 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, ...

. 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 Control theorists American electrical engineers American people of Indian descent Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award recipients Fellow Members 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