Thomas Kailath | |
|---|---|
 Kailath with his late first wife, Sarah | |
| Born | (1935-06-07)June 7, 1935 (age 89) Pune,Bombay Presidency, British India |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | |
| Awards | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | Stanford University |
| Thesis | Communication via randomly varying channels (1961) |
| Doctoral advisor | John Wozencraft |
| Doctoral students | |
Thomas Kailath (born June 7, 1935) is an India-born Americanelectrical engineer,information theorist,control engineer,entrepreneur and the Hitachi America Professor of Engineeringemeritus atStanford University. Professor Kailath has authored several books, including the well-knownLinear Systems.
Kailath was elected as a member of the USNational Academy of Engineering in 1984 for outstanding contributions in prediction, filtering, andsignal processing, and for leadership in engineering.
Kailath is listed as anISI highly cited researcher and is generally recognized as one of the preeminent figures of twentieth-century electrical engineering.[1]
Kailath was born in 1935 inPune,Maharashtra,India, to aMalayalam-speakingSyrian Christian family fromKerala (a branch of the Chittoor family).[2] He studied atSt. Vincent's High School, Pune and received hisBachelor's degree in telecommunications engineering from theGovernment College of Engineering,University of Pune in 1956. He earned hisMaster's degree in 1959 and hisdoctorate (ScD) in 1961, both from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[3] He was the firstIndia-born student to receive a doctorate inelectrical engineering from MIT.[3]
Kailath is Hitachi America Professor of Engineeringemeritus atStanford University, where he has supervised about 80 Ph.D. theses. Kailath's research work has encompassed linear systems,estimation andcontrol theory,signal processing,information theory andsemiconductor device fabrication.[3][4][5]
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 bySynopsys), and Excess Bandwidth Corporation (founded in 1998 and acquired by Virata Corporation in 2000, which itself merged with Globespan in 2001 and nowConexant).
Kailath was elected a Fellow of theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1970. He is a member of the USNational Academy of Engineering (NAE), the USNational Academy of Sciences (NAS),American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), the Indian National Academy of Engineering and theSilicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.[6]
Kailath was awarded the 2007IEEE Medal of Honor for "exceptional development of powerfulalgorithms in the fields of communications, computing, control and signal processing",[7] the 2006IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal,[8][9] the 1996IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award (together withAli H. Sayed),[10] and the 1986John R. Ragazzini Award.
Kailath was honored with thePadma Bhushan award in 2009 by the Government of India for his contributions to Science and Engineering.[11] He was awarded the 2009BBVA 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 theNational Medal of Science, presented by PresidentBarack Obama 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."[12][13]
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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."[14]
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.[15][16]
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.[17][18] In 2022 a gift from the couple created the Anuradha Luther Maitra and Thomas Kailath Endowed Professorship in South Asian Studies atUC Santa Cruz to advance "research and discourse dedicated to South Asia and the South Asian diaspora".[19]
Kailath is the brother-in-law of journalistT. J. S. George, who is also a recipient of thePadma Bhushan.
Media related toThomas Kailath at Wikimedia Commons
