Professor M.T. Başar named a Swanlund Chair

9/27/2007 Lauren Eichmann, ECE Illinois

M. Tamer Başar, the Nearing Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is one of four University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professors recently named a Swanlund Chair, the highest endowed title at the University. The award recognizes faculty members who have made outstanding contributions in their fields.

Written by Lauren Eichmann, ECE Illinois

Tamer Başar
Tamer Başar

Tamer Başar, the Nearing Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is one of four University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professors recently named a Swanlund Chair, the highest endowed title at the University. The award recognizes faculty members who have made outstanding contributions in their fields.

Başar joined the ECE Illinois faculty in 1981 and is currently a Center for Advanced Study Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a research professor with the Coordinated Science Laboratory and the Information Trust Institute. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 journal articles and book chapters and has more than 250 conference publications in his name.

Başar is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, European Academy of Sciences, Society for Industrial and Applied Mechanics, International Society of Dynamic Games, American Mathematical Society, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 1983 he was elected a Fellow of the IEEE, where he has held many leadership positions with the Control Systems Society including president in 2000, vice president for publications in 1997, and general chairman and program chairman in 1992 and 1989, respectively. 

Başar is also the recipient of numerous awards including the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award of the American Automatic Control Council, the Tau Beta Pi Daniel C. Drucker Eminent Faculty Award of the College of Engineering at Illinois in 2004, and the IEEE Millennium Medal in 2000.

Başar’s current research interests include stochastic teams and games; routing, pricing, and congestion control in communication networks; control over wired and wireless networks; and mobile and distributed computing, among others.

The four recently-named Swanlund Chairs will be recognized at a reception on Oct. 3 and at an investiture ceremony later in the year. The other award recipients are Nigel D. Goldenfeld, physics; Arthur F. Kramer, psychology; and Gene E. Robinson, entomology. Only 15 other scholars have been appointed Swanlund Chairs, including ECE Professor Emeritus Karl Hess in 1996. 

Başar received a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1969 and MS, MPhil, and PhD degrees in engineering and applied science from Yale University, in 1970, 1971, and 1972, respectively.

The Swanlund Chair is named for Maybelle Leland Swanlund, a library studies alumna, who donated $12 million to endow the chairs.


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This story was published September 27, 2007.