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IFSA - NAFIPS 2019: Round Table in Memoriam Lotfi A. Zadeh

Lotfi Zadeh (Photo by Aaron Walburg)

This session will consider the founder of Fuzzy Sets as a scientist and a promotor of various scientific disciplines and areas in the fields of computer science, soft computing and computational intelligence. Born in 1921, Lotfi Zadeh started his academic career in the United States in the 1940's. Starting in the late 1950's, he was a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. He wrote the first papers on fuzzy sets and systems in the middle of the 1960's. In the last decade of the twentieth century, he pioneered the umbrella fields of soft computing and computational intelligence. After an adventurous and rich life, he passed away on September 6, 2017.

Lotfi A. Zadeh was an important science manager. He took over the key position as chairman of the department of Electrical Engineering at UC Berkeley (1963-1968) at a time when important decisions were pending, e.g., whether to favor analog or digital computers, as well as the nature of future curricula, programs, and centers in computer science. It was during this five-year tenure that his department was renamed the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

In his long academic career, Lotfi A. Zadeh supported many young scientists inside and outside of the United States of America.

In this session some friends and colleagues of Lotfi A. Zadeh will talk about their encounters with Lofti and other interesting occasions that characterize the man and scientist Loti A. Zadeh.

The round table's organizer is Rudolf Seising, while panelists include Jim Bezdek, Anca Ralescu, Vladik Kreinovich and Laszlo Koczy. Some video clips from Didier Dubois, Henri Prade, Michio Sugeno and Hans-J. Zimmermann are also anticipated.

Didier Dubois and Henri Prade video

Anca Ralescu document (pdf)