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MIT’s Professor Emeritus Sanjoy Mitter passes away

Mitter was regarded as a “remarkable scientist and an exceptional human being” by his colleagues.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) professor emeritus (post-tenure) Sanjoy Mitter, a member of the university’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science passed away, aged 89 according to an announcement on MIT’s website

Mitter's tenure at MIT began in 1970, when he was hired as an associate professor. Three years later, he was promoted to professor, and has remained with the university ever since. Mitter was a co-founder of the Center for Intelligent Control Systems (CICS) at MIT, which later merged with the Laboratory of Information and Decision Sciences (LIDS), which is now housed by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.  

He oversaw many foundational advances in the field now known as information and decision science, including innovations in communications networks, numerical algorithms for control design and large-scale optimization, and the newly emerging field of robust control. 

The MIT announcement says that Mitter was a gifted conversationalist with great personal warmth. In a tribute to Mitter, Paul-Peter Sotiriadis from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, wrote, “I will forever hold Professor Mitter in the highest regard, both as a remarkable scientist and an exceptional human being. His groundbreaking work in mathematical systems and control theory has left an enduring impact. Throughout my time at MIT, his unwavering support, guidance, and inspiring teaching were invaluable to me. I felt honoured to have him on my PhD committee.” 

Mitter was born in Kolkata, India, in 1933 to Subodh and Protiva Mitter. Subodh was the first one in his family of distinguished jurists on both sides, to become an electrical engineer and industrialist, and Mitter followed in the footsteps of his father. He received his BS in Mathematics in Kolkata in 1954, his BS in electrical engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London in 1957, and his PhD from the latter in 1965.

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