I received the diploma in control engineering in 1974 and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 1981, both from the University "Politechnica" of Bucharest (Romania). From 1974 to 1993 I have held various research positions at the Institute of Informatics Bucharest and at the Ruhr-University of Bochum. From 1990 to 1992 I worked at the Ruhr-University of Bochum as visiting research fellow in the framework of a fellowship award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. From 1993 until my retirement in 2015 I have been at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, where I was a Senior Scientist of the Institute of System Dyanmics and Control. I was a visiting fellow at the Kyoto University (1994), California Institute of Technology (2000), Australian National University (2000), University of Hong Kong (2000), and University of Umea (2002, 2008).

My main research interests include the numerical methods for linear systems analysis and design (with special emphasis on model and controller reduction, descriptor systems, periodic systems, fault detection), and robust numerical software for computer aided control system design (CACSD). I authored two books, coauthored three books, coedited two books, published over 65 papers in refereed journals or book chapters, and have over 155 conference publications. I am the developer of 19 software packages and co-developer of 9 software packages for CACSD, of which 10 packages are free software. 

I became a Fellow of the IEEE in 2003 "for contributions to the development of numerical methods for computer aided analysis and design of control systems". I served as  Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control between 1997-1999. I was the Program Chairman of the 1999 Symposium on CACSD (Hawaii), the General Chair for the 2000 Symposium on CACSD (Anchorage, Alaska), the General Chair of the 2006 IEEE Conference on Control Applications, 2006 IEEE Symposium on CACSD and 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (Munich, Germany), and the Program Chair of the 2013 Conference on Control and Fault-Tolerant Systems (SYSTOL'13, Nice, France). For 2000-2004 I was the Chairman of the Technical Committee on CACSD within the IEEE Control Systems Society and for 2002-2003 I was a nominated member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Control Systems Society.