Swanlund Chair

The Swanlund chair is the highest endowed title bestowed upon faculty at the University. The Swanlund Chair is named for alumna Maybelle Leland Swanlund. Swanlund, who received a degree in library studies from Illinois in 1932 and who died in 1993, provided a $12 million endowment for chairs to attract leaders in the arts and sciences to the University and recognize current faculty members who have made exceptional contributions in their fields. The awards are for five years and may be renewed.

Faculty: Tamar Basar

In September of 2007, Basar joined 14 of his peers as Swanlund Chairs. Basar, who was born in Istanbul, joined the ECE Department in 1981. His research interests include optimal, robust, and nonlinear control; large-scale systems; dynamic games; stochastic control; estimation theory; stochastic processes; and mathematical economics. Basar holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Robert College (Bogaziçi University), Istanbul, 1969; a master's in engineering and applied science from Yale University, 1970; an M. Phil in engineering and applied science, from Yale, 1971; and a PhD in engineering and applied science also from Yale, 1972.

Basar is director of the Decision and Control Lab (DCL), a multidisciplinary lab within the Coordinated Science Laboratory. In addition to various engineering fields, decision and control has implications in economics and the social sciences. As part of his research activities with DCL, Basar develops tools of dynamic game theory to manipulate inputs into a system to attain a desired objective.