engineering

Thomas Kailath

Thomas Kailath is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thomas Kailath rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas Kailath (born June 7, 1935) is an Indian-American electrical engineer, information theorist, control engineer, entrepreneur and the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering emeritus at Stanford University. Professor Kailath has authored several books, including the well-known Linear Systems.

Key takeaways

Thomas Kailath belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thomas Kailath to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thomas Kailath from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thomas Kailath (born June 7, 1935) is an Indian-American electrical engineer, information theorist, control engineer, entrepreneur and the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering emeritus at Stanford University. Professor Kailath has authored several books, including the well-known Linear Systems. Kailath was elected as a member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 1984 for outstanding contributions in prediction, filtering, and signal processing, and for leadership in engineering. Kailath is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher and is generally recognized as one of the preeminent figures of twentieth-century electrical engineering.

Biography Kailath was born in 1935 in Pune, Maharashtra, India, to a Malayali family from Kerala. He studied at St. Vincent's High School, Pune and received his Bachelor's degree in telecommunications engineering from the Government College of Engineering, University of Pune in 1956. He earned his Master's degree in 1959 and doctorate (ScD) in 1961 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), becoming the first India-born student to receive a doctorate in electrical engineering from the institution. Kailath is the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering emeritus at Stanford University, where he has supervised about 80 Ph.D. theses. Kailath's research work has encompassed linear systems, estimation and control theory, signal processing, information theory and semiconductor device fabrication. In addition to academic work. Kailath has also co-founded several high-technology companies, including Integrated Systems (founded in 1980 and merged with WindRiver Systems in 1999), Numerical Technologies (founded in 1995 and acquired by Synopsys), and Excess Bandwidth Corporation (founded in 1998 and acquired by Virata Corporation in 2000, which itself merged with Globespan in 2001 and is now Conexant).

Honors and Recognition Kailath was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1970. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame. Kailath was awarded the 2007 IEEE Medal of Honor for "exceptional development of powerful algorithms in the fields of communications, computing, control and signal processing", the 2006 IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal, the 1996 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award (together with Ali H. Sayed), and the 1986 John R. Ragazzini Award. Kailath was honored with the Padma Bhushan award in 2009 by the Government of India for his contributions to Science and Engineering. He was also awarded the 2009 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technology "for creating knowledge with transformative impact on the information and communication technologies that permeate everyday life". In 2012, Kailath was a recipient of the National Medal of Science, presented by President Barack Obama in 2014 for "transformative contributions to the fields of information and system science, for distinctive and sustained mentoring of young scholars, and for translation of scientific ideas into entrepreneurial ventures that have had a significant impact on industry."

The Marconi Society honored Kailath in 2017 with the Lifetime Achievement Award for "his many transformative contributions to information and system science and his sustained mentoring and development of new generations of scientists."

Personal Kailath was married to Sarah (Jacob) Kailath from 1962 until her death in 2008, and they had four children: Ann (wife of MIT professor George Verghese), Paul, Priya and Ryan. In 2013, Kailath married Dr. Anuradha Luther Maitra, retired economics professor, trustee and former president of the UC Santa Cruz Foundation Board, and former CEO of Floreat, Inc. In 2022 a gift from the couple created the Anuradha Luther Maitra and Thomas Kailath Endowed Professorship in South Asian Studies at UC Santa Cruz to advance "research and discourse dedicated to South Asia and the South Asian diaspora". Kailath is the brother-in-law of journalist T. J. S. George, who is also a recipient of the Padma Bhushan.

Publications 1979, Linear Systems (Prentice-Hall Information and System Science Series) (1979, Prentice Hall, ISBN 978-0-13-536961-6) 1987, Indefinite-Quadratic Estimation and Control: A Unified Approach to H2 and H ∞ {\displaystyle \infty } Theories (Studies in Applied and Numerical Mathematics) with Ali H. Sayed & Babak Hassibi (1987, Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics, ISBN 978-0-89871-411-1) 1997, Discrete Neural Computation: A Theoretical Foundation with Kai-Yeung Siu & Vwani Roychowdhury (1997, Prentice Hall, ISBN 978-0-13-300708-4) 2000, Linear Estimation with Ali H. Sayed & Babak Hassibi (2000, Prentice Hall, ISBN 978-0-13-022464-4)

References

External links Media related to Thomas Kailath at Wikimedia Commons

Kailath' Stanford website Stanford biography IEEE Spectrum article IEEE 2007 Medal of Honor: Thomas Kailath IEEE History Center: Thomas Kailath oral history from IEEE Sarah Kailath Chair in India Studies Indolink piece on Dr. Kailath, mentions Malayalam script on his house Thomas Kailath at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thomas Kailath

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thomas Kailath claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thomas Kailath before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thomas Kailath ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thomas Kailath

In research: Thomas Kailath appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thomas Kailath in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thomas Kailath is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1935 births, 20th-century American engineers, 20th-century Indian engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thomas Kailath outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Thomas Kailath in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thomas Kailath means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thomas Kailath out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thomas Kailath in simple terms?

Why does Thomas Kailath matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thomas Kailath?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thomas Kailath.