John Tsitsiklis

John N. Tsitsiklis, born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1958, has established himself as a preeminent figure in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, where he serves as the Clarence J. Lebel Professor. His remarkable academic journey began and flourished at MIT, where he earned his B.S. in Mathematics, B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. After a brief stint as an acting assistant professor at Stanford University, he joined MIT's faculty in 1984, where he has made transformative contributions to systems, optimization, control, and operations research. His influential work spans decentralized control, consensus algorithms, approximate dynamic programming, and statistical learning. Tsitsiklis has co-authored several seminal books, including "Parallel and Distributed Computation," "Neuro-Dynamic Programming," and "Introduction to Probability." His exceptional contributions have earned him numerous prestigious accolades, including the 2016 ACM SIGMETRICS Achievement Award, the 2018 IEEE Control Systems Award, and the John von Neumann Theory Prize. As a member of the National Academy of Engineering and director of the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, he continues to shape the field through his research and teaching. His impact extends beyond academia through seven awarded U.S. patents and honorary doctorates from multiple institutions, including the Université catholique de Louvain and the Athens University of Economics and Business.