I received my B.S. degree from Texas A&M University in 1986 and my Ph.D. from Rice University in 1990, both in Electrical Engineering. In 1990, I joined the Electrical Engineering Department at Iowa State University. While at Iowa State University, I created the Dynamics and Control Program and led that control group until 2002.

In 2001, I was a visiting Professor at the California Institute of Technology. In May 2002, I joined the Dynamics and Control group in the department of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I served as Vice Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department from 2003 to 2006, and have served as the Director of the Center for Control, Dynamical Systems and Computation from 2005 to the present.

I work in the areas of robust control theory, multi-objective control, and systems biology. My research interests lie in the modeling and analysis of biological networks, noise in biology, computational methods for stochastic biochemical networks, biological system identification, regulation in biology, control and dynamical systems, and power and energy systems.

Significant Lectures

Caltech Biophysics Lecture Series, April 2011

Plenary lecture, 3rd International Workshop on Systems Biology, Hamilton, Institute, Ireland, 2010

Keynote lecture, NSF/Northeast Control Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, 2010

Semi-Plenary lecture, IFAC Symposium on Systems Identification, Saint Malo, France, 2009

Keynote lecture, ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, November 2008

Semi-Plenary lecture, IEEE Colloquium on Systems Biology, Sheffield, UK, 2007

Semi-Plenary lecture, Mathematical Theory for Networks and Systems (MTNS) Conference, 2006

Plenary lecture, International Symposium on Control, Communication, and Signal Processing, March 2004

Awards

Fellow, International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), 2010

Leon Heller Postdoctoral Publication Prize in Theoretical Physics, (co-authored with Munsky, Trinh)

PhD student Munsky won Best ME Ph.D Thesis Award, 2008

Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2007

Distinguished Lecturer, Michigan State University, 2007

PhD student El-Samad won Best ME Ph.D Thesis Award, 2005

PhD student Wenzheng Qiu won Best Ph.D Thesis Award, 2004

JSPS Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), September 2003

Young Engineering Faculty Research Award, Iowa State University, 1999

Early Achievement in Research and Scholarship Award, Iowa State University Foundation, 1995

National Young Investigator Award (NYI), National Science Foundation, 1994

NSF Research Initiation Award, National Science Foundation, 1991

Ralph Budd Best Engineering Ph.D Thesis Award, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 1990