# Lotfi A. Zadeh

### Research Areas

- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Control, Intelligent Systems, and Robotics (CIR)
- soft computing, knowledge-based systems

### Research Centers

- Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR)

## Biography

Lotfi Zadeh was a Professor in the Graduate School of the Computer Science Division of Berkeley EECS. He also e served as the Director of BISC (Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing). Lotfi Zadeh passed away on September 6, 2017.

Zadeh was an alumnus of the University of Tehran, MIT and Columbia University. From 1950 to 1959, he was a member of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at UC Berkeley in 1959 and served as its Chair from 1963 to 1968. During his tenure as Chair, he played a key role in changing the name of the Department from EE to EECS. He held visiting appointments at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ; MIT, Cambridge, MA; IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose, CA; AI Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA; and the Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University.

Zadeh was a Fellow of the IEEE, AAAS, ACM, AAAI, and IFSA. He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences, the Polish Academy of Sciences, Korean Academy of Science & Technology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the International Academy of Systems Studies, Moscow, and the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. He was a recipient of the IEEE Education Medal, the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, the IEEE Medal of Honor, the ASME Rufus Oldenburger Medal, the B. Bolzano Medal of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Kampe de Feriet Medal, the AACC Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award, the Grigore Moisil Prize, the Honda Prize, the Okawa Prize, the AIM Information Science Award, the IEEE-SMC J. P. Wohl Career Achievement Award, the SOFT Scientific Contribution Memorial Award of the Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory, the IEEE Millennium Medal, the ACM 2001 Allen Newell Award, the Norbert Wiener Award of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, Civitate Honoris Causa by Budapest Tech (BT) Polytechnical Institution, Budapest, Hungary, the V. Kaufmann Prize, International Association for Fuzzy-Set Management and Economy (SIGEF), the Nicolaus Copernicus Medal of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the J. Keith Brimacombe IPMM Award, the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame, the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum Wall of Fame, the Egleston Medal, the Franklin Institute Medal, the Medal of the Foundation by the Trust of the Foundation for the Advancement of Soft Computing, the High State Award âFriendship Orderâ, from the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Transdisciplinary Award and Medal of the Society for Design and Process Sciences, other awards and twenty-four honorary doctorates. He published extensively (over 200 single-authored papers) on a wide variety of subjects relating to the conception, design and analysis of information/intelligent systems, and served on the editorial boards of over seventy journals.

Prior to the publication of his first paper on fuzzy sets in 1965, Zadehâs work was concerned in the main with systems analysis, decision analysis and information systems. His current research is focused on fuzzy logic, semantics of natural languages, computational theory of perceptions, computing with words, extended fuzzy logic and Z-numbers.

## Selected Publications

- L. A. Zadeh, "Fuzzy logic = computing with words," IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Systems, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 103-111, May 1996.
- L. A. Zadeh, "Fuzzy logic and the calculus of fuzzy if-then rules," in Proc. 22nd Intl. Symp. on Multiple-Valued Logic, Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1992, pp. 480-480.
- L. A. Zadeh, "A computational approach to fuzzy quantifiers in natural languages," Computers & Mathematics with Applications: Special Issue on Computational Linguistics, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 149-184, Jan. 1983.
- L. A. Zadeh, "A fuzzy-algorithmic approach to the definition of complex or imprecise concepts," Intl. J. Man-Machine Studies, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 249-291, May 1976.
- L. A. Zadeh, "The concept of a linguistic variable and its application to approximate reasoning - III," Information Sciences, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 43-80, Dec. 1975.
- L. A. Zadeh, "The concept of a linguistic variable and its application to approximate reasoning - II," Information Sciences, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 301-357, Oct. 1975.
- L. A. Zadeh, "The concept of a linguistic variable and its application to approximate reasoning - I," Information Sciences, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 199-249, July 1975.
- R. E. Bellman and L. A. Zadeh, "Decision making in a fuzzy environment," Management Science, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. B141-B164, Dec. 1970.
- L. A. Zadeh, "Fuzzy sets," Information and Control, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 338-353, June 1965.
- L. A. Zadeh and C. A. Desoer, Linear System Theory: The State Space Approach, W. Linvill, L. A. Zadeh, and G. Dantzia, Eds., McGraw-Hill Series in System Science, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1963.
- L. A. Zadeh and C. A. Desoer, Linear System Theory: The State Space Approach, W. Linvill, L. A. Zadeh, and G. Dantzia, Eds., McGraw-Hill Series in System Science, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1963.
- J. R. Ragazzini and L. A. Zadeh, "The analysis of sampled-data systems," Trans. American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Part II (Applications and Industry), vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 225-234, Nov. 1952.

## Awards, Memberships and Fellowships

- Golden Goose Award, 2017
- Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies, 2012
- Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering, 2009
- Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame, 2006
- Nicolaus Copernicus Medal, 2005
- Kaufmann Prize, 2004
- InTech Magazine's Leaders of the Pack, 2003
- ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award, 2000
- CIS Fuzzy Systems Pioneer Award, 2000
- IFSA Certificate of Merit, 1999
- Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award, 1998
- SOFT Scientific Contribution Memorial Award, 1998
- AAAI Feigenbaum Prize (formerly the Feigenbaum Medal), 1998
- International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA) Fellow, 1997
- Bernard Bolzano Honorary Medal, 1997
- SMC Joseph G. Wohl Outstanding Career Award, 1997
- Okawa Prize, 1996
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow, 1994
- IEEE Medal of Honor, 1993
- Rufus Oldenburger Medal, 1993
- Grigore Moisil Prize, 1993
- IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, 1992
- KampÃ© de FÃ©riet Award, 1992
- AI Special Contributions Award, 1992
- Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Fellow, 1991
- Berkeley Citation, 1991
- IEEE Life Member, 1990
- Honda Prize, 1989
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, 1976
- A.C. Eringen Medal, 1976
- IEEE James H. Mulligan Education Medal, 1973
- National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Member, 1973
- Guggenheim Fellow, 1968
- Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow, 1958
- NSF Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, 1956