Overview
Dr. Thomas I. Seidman
Conference
Description:
The conference, Advances in
Control of Partial Differential Equations, is being
held in honor of the 70th birthday of UMBC
Professor Thomas I. Seidman. Dr. Seidman received his Ph.D. from
New York University with K. O. Friedrichs in 1959. In his early career,
he spent time both at national laboratories and in industry, before
joining the faculty at Wayne State University and Carnegie Mellon University.
In 1972, he moved to UMBC and is now serving UMBC in the 35th year.
With this conference, we will honor Dr. Seidman's outstanding
research productivity, which includes over 150 papers with more than
60 collaborators, and his continuing research productivity publishing
over 4 papers per year. His long and distinguished career over 50 years
has particularly impacted the area of control of partial differential
equations.
Control theory came of age in the Second World War, when it was characterized
by its intimate connection between a rich new mathematics and specific
applications. The subject has flourished ever since. In the twenty-five
years after the war, the treatment of systems governed by a finite number
of functions of time, such as systems of ordinary differential equations,
reached a level of maturity combining techniques of analysis, geometry,
and computation, which were brought to bear on an increasingly wide
range of applications. This part of control theory has continued to
grow. In the 1970's began a sustained interest in the rich and technically
demanding control of partial differential equations (sometimes under
the rubric of control of distributed parameter systems or of infinite-dimensional
systems). The growth of this new part of control theory has gone hand-in-hand
with modern developments in evolutionary partial differential equations,
both linear and nonlinear, requiring all the technical apparatus of
this field. Control theory for partial differential equations has been
applied to a growing list important applications: damping of acoustic
vibrations in the fuselage of an airplane or helicopter, directed steering
of biological cells through micro-fluidic solutions, leading to a more
targeted approach to cell annihilation, navigation of autonomous vehicles
through biochemically contaminated areas (of interest to homeland security),
control of smart materials, which typically have nonlinear material
properties coupled with electromagnetic and/or thermal effects, development
of algorithms for the steering of spacecraft and fighter jets, and even
the climate control system in large buildings.
Location and Venue: The workshop will take place on the campus
of University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). The campus, which currently
serves over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students, is located just
outside the city of Baltimore and a short distance from Washington,
DC. It can be reached conveniently by car from Interstate I-95, by air
to BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and by train (Amtrak) to the BWI Rail
Station, all just minutes from campus. See the UMBC
Visitor's Guide for an interactive campus map and directions to
UMBC. The campus offers state-of-the-art presentation facilities for
the invited presentations, as well as a comfortable environment for
participants to discuss presentations as well as on-going research.
All sites will be accessible to speakers and participants with disabilities.
Financial Support: Pending funding, we anticipate to be able
to provide financial support to a limited number of participants. Please
use the webform to register and apply for assistance and check
this site for updates regarding the conference.
Scientific Program
