A Message from the Director

Past and present join in this latest issue of our magazine, in which I invite you to get to know one of our most senior faculty members and two of our newest. A special interview with Professor Emeritus J. Francis Reintjes, who directed the lab from 1952 to 1974, accompanies interviews with Professors Ozdaglar and Shah, each of whom have joined us in recent years. Frank Reintjes offers a personalized view of the past, while Asu Ozdaglar and Devavrat Shah detail new research they conduct in our growing lab. Profiles of two control theory students are also featured, along with highlights of the past year.

As LIDS continues to evolve as a research community at the cutting edge of its various fields, and deeply committed to roots in fundamental research, it is our faculty who play a major role in realizing our objectives. They spearhead the effort to train our students in the essentials, while also increasing efforts to provide every graduate student exposure to real-life engineering problems. They also help foster engineering creativity in our students, accomplished via a combination of activities such as partnerships, mentoring, case studies and internships. Recruitment of new faculty adds to the already impressive innovation and energy of longer-standing members.

As the 2005-2006 academic year draws to a close, we’re well settled into our new home at the Stata Center, and continue to host events, expand connections to industry, and recruit new members. LIDS remains a thriving, interdisciplinary community. I hope you enjoy the glimpse of our community, then and now, that this issue of LIDS-All provides.

Vincent Chan
Joan and Irwin Jacobs Professor
Director, Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems