Professor Emeritus Michael Athans, the Pioneer in Theory of Control, Dies Aged 83
A professor of electrical engineering of long standing, he was also a transformational research supervisor at the MIT Lab for Information and Decisions System.
MIT Professor Emeritus of Computer and Electrical Engineers Michael Athans quietly died on May the 26th at his family home in Clearwater, Florida, at the age of eighty-three.
Athans was born in Drama, Macedonia, Greece, in 1937. He came to the U.S. His year at AFS was a year of specification. He really loved America while there and made the decision to stay in the US when his AFS year ended. MIT Professor Emeritus of Computer and Electrical Engineers subsequently went to Golden State University in Berkeley from 1955 to 1961, where he received his BS in 1958 (with highest honors), MS in 1959, and Ph.D. in control in 1961.
He had a wonderful time in academia. A research pioneer in the control theoretical field, he contributed to shaping current contemporary control theory and led, along with students and colleagues, the field of multivariable and durable control system arrangement. These key contributions were delivered throughout Athans’ long and deep tenure at MIT, as a technical staff participant at Lincoln Lab from 1961 to 1964, and as a Professor in the Electrical Design and Computer Technology Department during 1964 to 1998.
In the words of John Tsitsiklis, the Clarence J. Lebel Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who was similarly an trainee of Athans: “It is impossible to emphasize too greatly the impact and influence that Mike had on the theory of regulating systems field. He drove the mainstream development of the primary techniques.
He also impacted the field as the transforming director of the Laboratory of Decision Details and Solutions (LIDS), the Laboratory for Electronic Solutions, as Athans assumed the helm on 1974. Identified the prominence of the control areas and systems in a large range of different subject domain designations, the necessity for newer methodologies tailored to very large-scale systems, and also the overall systems of control and comms.
Key to this growth was the pioneering work of Athans and co-workers who turned the multivariable control scheme into a sensible engineering approach that could be applied to complicated, scattered, large-scale systems, which Athans correctly envisioned as the future of system style, which concluded in late 1981.
In what has become the most valued facet of his work, he mentored and monitored the theses of over 100 undergraduates during his career; established a program on modern control theory, producing nearly 70 videotaped tutorials that have been important in the education of hundreds of practicing designers; and co-authored three publications, notably “Optimal Control” (with Peter Falb), a landmark text that has reached generations of students. In addition, he transitioned his research by co-founding, in 1978, ALPHATECH in Burlington, Massachusetts, where he was chairman of the supervisory board and chief clinical consultant.
Described by close personal friends as a life force, Athans helped his trainees with care and typically profoundly affected the lives of his buddies and work colleagues. “Mike was immeasurably vital to me, in particular in my time in graduate school at MIT,” says Alan Willsky, the Edwin Sibley Webster Professor of Electrical Design and Computer Science and also a previous manager of LIDS.
The Willsky’s remembrance of Athans as being fully and wholeheartedly visibility was echoed by a number of co-workers and former students, consistant of Nils Sandell Ph.D. ’74, who states, “Michael was my Ph.D. superintendent, ran LIDS when I taught at MIT, and was the Founding Chairman of ALPHATECH, for which I was chief of expertise.
He is a wonderful instructor with a highly entreprising nature, and was an unfailing companion. I will surely miss him in a very substantial way.Upon retirement, Athans moved to Lisbon, Portugal for 15 years and also earned an honorary PhD from the Technical University of Lisbon in the year 2011.
Michael Athans was pre-deceased by his young son John Athans Spodick. He is also survived by his much-loved companion Lena Corsentino; the boys Stephen Athans Spodick and also his very best half Kathleen of Holden, Massachusetts; Brett Athans of St. Petersburg, Florida, Sean Athans of St. Pete Beach, Florida; and as well as Stavros Valavanis of New York, New York; as well as four grandsons, Ryan and Christopher Spodick of Burlington, Vermont, Nicholas Spodick of Holden, Massachusetts, and Michael Athans of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Indeed he will be born in mind for his outstanding leadership, goodness, cleverness, powerful will, and matured background in Greece. His suppliers take it very personally.
Read the original article on MIT News.
