Brief Biography

I was born in Toronto in 1947. I obtained my B.A.Sc. and M.Eng. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and my Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1969, 1970, and 1975, respectively.

Past positions

1975-76: NSERC Postdoc., EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
1975-76: NSERC Postdoc., Control and Management Systems Division, University of Cambridge
1977-79: EE Department, McGill University
1979-81: Engineering and Applied Science Department, Yale University
1981-84: EE Department, University of Waterloo

Past visiting positions

1988: Visiting Professor, EE Department, Caltech
1990: Visiting Professor, EE Department, University of Minnesota 

Since 1984 I’ve been in the ECE Department, University of Toronto.

I've taught courses in probability and random processes, calculus, complex variables, differential equations, linear algebra, functional analysis, discrete mathematics, circuit theory, linear systems, classical control theory, state-space theory, nonlinear systems and control, optimal control, multivariable control, H-infinity optimization, digital control, robot networks, multirate digital signal processing and wavelets, and digital signal processing.

I became a Fellow of the IEEE in 1988. I was a co-recipient of two Outstanding Paper Awards for papers appearing in the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control in 1984 and 1990, and a co-recipient (with Doyle, Glover, and Khargonekar) of the 1991 IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize Award for the most outstanding paper reporting original work in the IEEE Transactions, Journals, Magazines, and Proceedings. I held a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship during July 27-Sept. 1, 1989. I received three teaching awards at U of T: by the fourth-year ECE class of 1985; by the second-year ECE class of 1995; and by my DSP class of Fall 2008. I'm listed in the ISIHighlyCited website.

I'm married to Jingwen Francis and we have a daughter, Lian, age 15.

In 1976 I came 11th in the Davis Double Century.