Irena Lasiecka is the First Woman to Win the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award

Irena Lasiecka, professor and chair of the department of mathematical sciences at the University of Memphis, has received the 2019 Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award from the American Automatic Control Council. She is the first woman to receive the award in its 40-year history.

The award is presented to an individual who has made distinguished career contributions in the theory of application of automatic control. It is considered the highest acknowledgment of professional achievement for U.S. control systems engineers and scientists. Dr. Lasiecka was honored for her contributions to boundary control theory of distributed parameter systems.

Dr. Lasiecka has served as a distinguished professor and chair of the mathematics department at the University of Memphis since 2013. Earlier in her career, she held full professorships at the University of Florida and the University of Virginia, where she was the Commonwealth Professor of Mathematics. Dr. Lasiecka has also held various visiting appointments in the U.S. and Europe. Additionally, she has been included in the Institute for Scientific Information list of Highly Cited Researchers since its inception.

Outside of her roles at the University of Memphis, Dr. Lasiecka serves as a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Mathematical Society, and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. She is also the editor-in-chief of Applied Mathematics and Optimization and Evolution Equations and Control Theory. 

Dr. Lasiecka holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. both in mathematics from the University of Warsaw in Poland.