Sami Erol Gelenbe (born 22 August 1945) is a Turkish-French computer scientist, electronic engineer and applied mathematician who is a Professor in the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Informatics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and is also affiliated with the I3S Laboratory of the University of Cote d'Azur (Nice). Previously he was a chaired professor at University of Liege (1974-1979), University Paris-Sud (1979-1986), University Paris Descartes (1986-2005), Duke University (1993-1998), the University of Central Florida (1998-2003) and Imperial College (2003-2019). Known for pioneering the field of modelling and performance evaluation of computer systems and networks throughout Europe, he invented the random neural network and the eponymous G-networks. His awards include the Grand Prix France Telecom (1996) of the French Aademy of Sciences, ACM SIGMETRICS[3] Life-Time Achievement Award, the Oliver Lodge Medal of the UK's Institution of Engineering and Technology (2010), and the "In Memoriam Dennis Gabor Award" (2013) [4] of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Biography
Gelenbe was born in Istanbul in 1945, to Yusuf Ali Gelenbe, a descendant of the 18th-century Ottoman mathematician Gelenbevi Ismail Efendi, and Maria Sacchet Gelenbe from Cesiomaggiore, Belluno, Italy. After a childhood spent in Istanbul and Alexandria (Egypt), he graduated from Ankara Koleji in 1962 and the Middle East Technical University, Ankara in 1966, where he won the K.K. Clarke Research Award for an undergraduate thesis on "partial flux switching magnetic memory systems".[5] Awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, he continued his studies at Polytechnic University, where he completed a master's degree and a PhD thesis on "Stochastic automata with structural restrictions", under the supervision of Edward J. Smith.[6]
After graduation he joined the University of Michigan as an assistant professor. In 1972, on leave from Michigan, he founded the Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computer Systems research group at INRIA (France), and was a visiting associate professor at the University of Paris 13 University. In 1971 he was elected to a Chair in Computer Science at the University of Liège in Belgium, where he joined Professor Danny Ribbens in 1973, while remaining a research director at INRIA. In 1973, he was awarded a Doctorat d'État ès Sciences Mathématiques from the Paris VI University with a thesis on "Modèlisation des systèmes informatiques", under Jacques-Louis Lions. He remained a close friend of Professor Ribbens and of the University of Liège, and in 1979, he moved to the Paris-Sud 11 University, where he co-founded the Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique and its PhD Program, before joining Paris Descartes University in 1986 to found the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Informatique.
Gelenbe was appointed New Jersey State Endowed Chair Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology from 1991 to 1993, and then in 1993 he was appointed to Duke University where he was the Nello L. Teer Chair Professor and Head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department until 1998 when he moved to the University of Central Florida, and founded the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science[7] and created the Harris Corporation Engineering Centre [8]
In 2003, Gelenbe was offered a Chair at Imperial College London as the Dennis Gabor Professor in Computer and Communication Networks[9][10] and Head of Intelligent Systems and Networks, from which he retired in 2019. He is now a Professor in the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Informatics (IITIS)[11] of the Polish Academy of Sciences.[12]
Notable contributions
Gelenbe invented the Random neural network model and its polynomial-time learning algorithm. He invented the eponymous G-network, a mathematical model of the performance of distributed systems and networks with complex node to node interactions, used to analyze dynamic resource allocation in interconnected systems. He has pioneered research concerning the performance of multiprogramming computer systems, virtual memory management, data base reliability optimisation, distributed systems and network protocols. He formed, led, and trained the team that designed the commercial QNAP Computer and Network Performance Modeling Tool. He introduced the Flexsim Object Oriented approach for the simulation in manufacturing systems leading to a widely used commercial product. He published the first work on adaptive control of computer systems to optimise time-sharing systems, and published seminal papers on the performance optimisation of computer network protocols and on diffusion approximations for network performance. He invented the product form queueing networks with negative customers and triggers known as G-networks.[13] He introduced a new spiked stochastic neural network model known as the random neural network, developed its mathematical solution and learning algorithms, and applied it to both engineering and biological problems. His inventions include the first Voice-Packet Switch SYCOMORE for Thales, the random access fibre-optics local area network XANTHOS, a patented admission control technique for ATM networks, a neural network based anomaly detector for brain magnetic resonance scans, and the Cognitive Packet Network routing protocol to offer quality of service to users [14].[15]
From 1984 to 1986 he served as the Science and Technology Advisor to the French Secretary of State for Universities. He founded the ISCIS (International Symposium on Computer and Information Sciences) series of conferences that since 1986 are held annually in Turkey, the USA and Europe to bring together Turkish computer scientists with their international counterparts.[16] According to the Mathematics Genealogy project, Gelenbe is ranked 9th world-wide among PhD supervisors in the Mathematical Sciences, including Computer Science, having graduated some 90 PhD students.[17] 24 of his former PhD students are women, including a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering of Canada, and the former Director General of Higher Education in France. [18] 51 of his PhD students graduated in France, 26 in the UK, and 12 in the USA, and 26. His former PhD students work in France, USA, UK, Canada, China, Greece, Belgium, Singapore, Turkey, Egypt, Germany, Sudan, Morocco, Australia.
Latest research interests
Gelenbe currently [19] works on energy efficient computer systems and self-aware networks, and on network security and on networked auctions. His recent collaborations with biologists include Gene Regulatory Networks and Protein Sequence Alignment.[20]
Knight Commander in the Order of the Star of Italy, or "Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia", 2007[22]
Commander of Merit of Italy (Commendatore in the "Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana"), 2005[23]
Knight of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, France, 2003
Commander of the Ordre National du Mérite, France, 2019 (awarded Knighthood in 1993) [24][25]
Fellow of the Science Academy, Turkey[29]
Fellow of the French Academy of Technologies or Académie des technologies[30]
Fellow of the Académie Royale de Belgique, 2015
Member of Academia Europaea[31]
Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York City, 2002[32]
Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), New York City, 1986[33]
Awards
IFIP Fellow Awarded by the General Assembly of the International Federation of Information Processing, 2019
Mustafa Prize in Information Sciences and Technology, 2017[34]
In Memoriam Dennis Gabor Award, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2013[35]
Institution of Engineering and Technology Oliver Lodge Medal, 2010[36][37]
ACM SIGMETRICS Award describes him "as the single individual who, over a span of 30 years, has made the greatest overall contribution to the field of Computer System and Network Performance Evaluation"[38]
Docteur en Sciences "Honoris Causa", University of Liège, Belgium[39][40]
Dottore "Honoris Causa", University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy, 1996
Doctor "Honoris Causa" from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, and from Université de Liège
France Telecom Prize, one of the Grands Prix of the French Academy of Sciences, 1996[41]
Parlar Foundation Science Award, Turkey, 1994[42]
International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Silver Core Award, 1980[43]
Selected bibliography
References
1. ^ Jump up to:a b Gaster, Adrian. The international authors and writers who's who. International Biographical Centre. ISBN 978-0-900332-45-6.
2. ^ Barria, Javier A. (2006). Communication networks and computer systems: a tribute to Professor Erol Gelenbe. Imperial College Press. pp. 1–8. ISBN 978-1-86094-659-2.
3. ^ "ACM SIGMETRICS Life-Time Achievement Award 2008".
4. ^ "In Memoriam Dennis Gabor Award 2013". Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
5. ^ Çaglayan, Professor Ufuk (26 October 2005). "Erol Gelenbe's Career and Contributions". In Yolum, pInar; Güngör, Tunga; Gürgen, Fikret; Özturan, Can (eds.). Computer and Information Sciences - ISCIS 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 3733. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 966–970. doi:10.1007/11569596_98. ISBN 978-3-540-29414-6.
6. ^ "Biographicon: Erol Gelenbe". Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
7. ^ "Departments of ECE and CS - Home".
8. ^ "Harris Corporation Engineering Center - UCF Campus Map, Orlando FL"..
9. ^ "Minutes of Senate Meeting" (PDF). Imperial College London. 13 December 2006. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
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