Stanford University Engineering professor Thomas Kailath is among recipients of the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest honors for achievement and leadership in advancing the fields of science and technology. The president also announced recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The new awardees will receive their medals at a White House ceremony later this year.
“These scholars and innovators have expanded our understanding of the world, made invaluable contributions to their fields, and helped improve countless lives,” a White House press release quoted President Obama as saying. “Our nation has been enriched by their achievements, and by all the scientists and technologists across America dedicated to discovery, inquiry, and invention,” he said.
Kailath’s research and teaching at Stanford have ranged over several fields of engineering and mathematics, with a different focus roughly every decade: information theory, communications, linear systems, estimation and control, signal processing, semiconductor manufacturing, probability and statistics, and matrix and operator theory, according to his biodata on the university website.
Kailath received the B.E. (Telecom) degree from the College of Engineering, Pune, in India, and S.M. (1959) and Sc.D. (1961) degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He then worked at the Jet Propulsion Labs in Pasadena, California, before joining Stanford University as associate professor of Electrical Engineering in 1963. He was promoted to professor in 1968, and was appointed the first holder of the Hitachi America Professorship in 1988. He assumed emeritus status in 2001, but remains active with his research and writing activities.
Kailath is a Fellow of the IEEE and has received the IEEE Medal of Honor in 2007 for contributions to the development of powerful algorithms for communications, control, computing and signal processing.
Among his other major honors are the Shannon Award of the IEEE Information Theory Society; the IEEE Education Medal and the IEEE Signal Processing Medal; Guggenheim, Churchill and Humboldt Fellowships; honorary degrees from universities in Sweden, Scotland, Spain, France, India and Israel; the Padma Bhushan, a high civilian award of the Government of India; the BBVA Foundation Prize for information and communication technologies; membership of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and foreign membership of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Spanish Academy of Engineering, and the major science and engineering academies in India.
The National Medal of Science was created by statute in 1959 and is administered for the White House by the National Science Foundation. Awarded annually, the medal recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science and engineering.