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Last Thursday, May 14, India-born engineering Professor Thomas Kailath, was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (United Kingdom) for his efforts in engineering, which the society says have helped to improve humankind's natural knowledge.
Pune-born Kailath, who is of Malayalam descent, received his both his Master's degree and doctorate degree (electrical engineering) from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kailath is perhaps best-known as the author of the seminal 1979 volume Linear Systems, which remains one of the most referenced books in the field of linear systems. He has authored several other engineering tomes and today is the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, at Stanford University.
Kailath is also a member of several other prestigious associations, such as the United States National Academy of Engineering, the United States National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame and the Indian National Academy of Engineering.
For his contributions in science and engineering, the Indian government awarded him the nation's third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan, in 2009.
The Royal Society, which is the UK's pre-eminent independent academy of science and which dates back to the days of Isaac Newton, every year elects 50 new members from all fields of science and engineering. 44 are elected from the UK and all the Commonwealth countries, including India, and 6 from the rest of the world.
Professor Kailath and the other 49 inductees will be formally admitted on July 10, 2009.