Pramod Khargonekar
| Dr. Pramod Khargonekar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Indore, India |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
University of Florida Indian Institute of Technology Bombay |
| Known for | Being the Dean of the UF College of Engineering, his contributions to the robust control theory |
Pramod Khargonekar was the Dean of the College of Engineering at University of Florida from 2001-2009. He is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Florida. Khargonekar was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. He is a well-known expert in control systems and he served as a senior advisor at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) funded by the United States and is currently serving as an assistant director for the Directorate of Engineering at NSF.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
History
He has earned his bachelor's degree at the Indian Institutes of Technology, Bombay. In the late 1970s, he moved to Gainesville, Florida and studied under the guidance of Rudolf Kalman. In 1980, Khargonekar received a master's degree in mathematics and in 1981 a doctorate in electrical engineering. He soon joined the University of Florida faculty as an assistant professor of electrical engineering.[2]
In 1984, he moved to the University of Minnesota. Five years later, he joined the University of Michigan faculty, where he eventually became the Claude E. Shannon Professor and Chairman of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department.
He returned to his alma mater in 2001 to become dean of the College of Engineering. There were 187 Ph.D.s awarded last year — almost 100 percent increase during his tenure as Dean. He returned to his teaching and research activities as Eckis Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in July 2009.
His research interests focus on control theory and its applications. He has received numerous honors and awards, including an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize Paper Award (1991), the George Axelby Best Paper Award, the Hugo Schuck ACC Best Paper Award, the Japan Society for Promotion of Science Fellowship, and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is a Fellow of IEEE. He is among ISI Highly Cited Researchers. At the University of Michigan, he received a teaching excellence award from the EECS department, a research excellence award from the College of Engineering, and the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship. At the University of Minnesota, he received the George Taylor Distinguished Research Award from the Institute of Technology. He has published a number of books and research papers in his long service at various Universities and he has also served research guide for PhD students.
He has joined as Deputy Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) of Technology at ARPA-e and served as a senior advisor.[7] He is currently leading the Directorate of Engineering at NSF with an annual budget of more than $800 million.