Thomas Kailath (born June 7, 1935) is an India-born American

electrical engineer 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 ...

, information theorist, control engineer,

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Professor Kailath has authored several books, including the well-known ''Linear Systems''. Kailath was elected as a member of the US

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 ...

in 1984 for outstanding contributions in prediction, filtering, and

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 for leadership in engineering. Kailath is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher and is generally recognized as one of the preeminent figures of twentieth-century electrical engineering.

Biography

Kailath was born in 1935 in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, to a

Malayali The Malayali people (; also spelt Malayalee and sometimes known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala and Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India, occupying its south ...

Syrian Christian family from

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

(a branch of the Chittoor family).Kulthe, Bhagyashree (dec 19th 2009) "2 Institutions bring Kailath to Pune", in DNA: Daily News & Analysis newspaper He studied at St. Vincent's High School, Pune and received his

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in telecommunications engineering from the Government College of Engineering,

University of Pune Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Pune, is a public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshkhind. The uni ...

in 1956. He earned his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in 1959 and his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

(ScD) in 1961, both from 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). He was the first

-born student to receive a doctorate 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 ...

from MIT. Kailath is Hitachi America Professor of Engineering

, where he has supervised about 80 Ph.D. theses. Kailath's research work has encompassed linear systems,

estimation Estimation (or estimating) is the process of finding an estimate or approximation, which is a value that is usable for some purpose even if input data may be incomplete, uncertain, or unstable. The value is nonetheless usable because it is d ...

and

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

information theory Information theory is the mathematical study of the quantification (science), quantification, Data storage, storage, and telecommunications, communication of information. The field was established and formalized by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, ...

and

semiconductor device fabrication Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices, typically integrated circuits (ICs) such as microprocessors, microcontrollers, and memories (such as Random-access memory, RAM and flash memory). It is a ...

. Kailath has co-founded several high-technology companies, including Integrated Systems (founded in 1980 and merged with WindRiver Systems in 1999), Numerical Technologies (founded in 1995 and acquired by

Synopsys Synopsys, Inc. is an American electronic design automation (EDA) company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that focuses on silicon design and verification, silicon intellectual property and software security and quality. Synopsys sup ...

), and Excess Bandwidth Corporation (founded in 1998 and acquired by Virata Corporation in 2000, which itself merged with Globespan in 2001 and now Conexant).

Honors and Recognition

Kailath was elected a Fellow 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 1970. He is a member of the US

(NAE), the US

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

(NAS),

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 ...

(AAAS), the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame. Kailath was awarded the 2007

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 "exceptional development of powerful

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for per ...

in the fields of communications, computing, control and signal processing", the 2006 IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal, the 1996 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award (together with Ali H. Sayed), and the 1986 John R. Ragazzini Award. Kailath was honored with the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

award in 2009 by the Government of India for his contributions to Science and Engineering. He was awarded the 2009 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technology "for creating knowledge with transformative impact on the information and communication technologies that permeate everyday life". In 2012, Kailath was a recipient of the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

, presented by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

in 2014 for "transformative contributions to the fields of information and system science, for distinctive and sustained mentoring of young scholars, and for translation of scientific ideas into entrepreneurial ventures that have had a significant impact on industry." The Marconi Society honored Kailath in 2017 with the Lifetime Achievement Award for "his many transformative contributions to information and system science and his sustained mentoring and development of new generations of scientists."

Personal

Kailath was married to Sarah (Jacob) Kailath from 1962 until her death in 2008, and they had four children: Ann (wife of MIT professor George Verghese), Paul, Priya and Ryan. In 2013, Kailath married Dr. Anuradha Luther Maitra, retired economics professor, trustee and former president of the UC Santa Cruz Foundation Board, and former CEO of Floreat, Inc. In 2022 a gift from the couple created the Anuradha Luther Maitra and Thomas Kailath Endowed Professorship in South Asian Studies at

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

to advance "research and discourse dedicated to South Asia and the South Asian diaspora". Kailath is the brother-in-law of journalist T. J. S. George, who is also a recipient of the

Publications

* 1979, ''Linear Systems (Prentice-Hall Information and System Science Series)'' (1979, Prentice Hall, ) * 1987, ''Indefinite-Quadratic Estimation and Control: A Unified Approach to H² and H^$\infty$ Theories (Studies in Applied and Numerical Mathematics)'' with Ali H. Sayed & Babak Hassibi (1987, Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics, ) * 1997, ''Discrete Neural Computation: A Theoretical Foundation'' with Kai-Yeung Siu & Vwani Roychowdhury (1997, Prentice Hall, ) * 2000, ''Linear Estimation'' with Ali H. Sayed & Babak Hassibi (2000, Prentice Hall, )

References

External links

Kailath' Stanford websiteIEEE Spectrum article
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kailath, Thomas American computer scientists American control theorists 1935 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 Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the IEEE IEEE Medal of Honor recipients Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in science & engineering Foreign members of the Royal Society Foreign fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Stanford University School of Engineering faculty MIT School of Engineering alumni Savitribai Phule Pune University alumni American people of Malayali descent Indian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers American academics of Indian descent 20th-century Indian engineers 21st-century Indian engineers Scientists from Pune Engineers from Maharashtra Detection and estimation theorists People from Pune Malayali people