Lotfi Zadeh

1
Lotfi Zadeh

• Creator of the concept of Fuzzy Logic
• 12 journals are now published which include the
  word Fuzzy in their title
• An estimated
• 15,000 articleshave been published
• 3,000 patentshave been applied forand 1,000
  granted

Illustration from Bart Kosko Fuzzy Thinking The
New Science of Fuzzy Logic, Hyperion, New York
1993
2
His Life

• 1921
• Born in Baku, Azerbaijan from an Iranian father
  and a Russian mother
• Moved to Iran
• With his family, after Stalin took over
• 1942
• Placed 2nd in Irans national university
  examsand graduated from the University of Tehran
  in electrical engineering
• Moved to the US during WW II
• Master's degree from MIT in 1946
• Ph.D. from Columbia in 1949
• Since 1959
• taught at Berkeley, became Chair of EE (later
  EECS) in 1963
• 1965 invented Fuzzy Logic
• 1991
• Retired but busier than ever with consultations
  and presentations
• Generally takes the red-eye flights,preferring
  to travel all night and economize on time

3
His values

• He's quick to shrug off nationalism, insisting
  there are much deeper issues in life
• The question really isn't whether I'm American,
  Russian, Iranian, Azerbaijani, or anything else.
  I've been shaped by all these people and cultures
  and I feel quite comfortable among all of them.
• See his commencement address delivered at
  Berkeley, May 25, 1997
• Major source for this interlude
• http//www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/24_f
  older/24_articles/24_zadeh.html