The 2009 Nyquist Lecturer will be Professor Karl Hedrick, the James Marshall Wells Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Hedrick has made seminal contributions to nonlinear estimation and control theory, from describing functions to sliding mode observers, sliding mode control and dynamic surface control, and its application to transportation systems including power train control and active suspension systems, automated highway systems and, most recently, formation flight of autonomous vehicles. He received the ASME Rufus Oldenburger Award in 2006.

Each year the Dynamic Systems and Control Division of ASME selects a prominent lecturer to invite to present a distinguished Nyquist Lecture. The spirit is to convey the DSCD Community a message of relatively broad interest. The event takes place in a pre-announced time slot arranged for maximum attendance, followed by a reception.

Dr. Hedrick is the James Marshall Wells professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in automatic control theory. He is currently the director of Berkeley’s Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory as well as the principal investigator of the Office of Naval Research center at Berkeley, the Center for the Collaborative Control of Unmanned Vehicles.

Hedrick served as chair of the Mechanical Engineering department at UC Berkeley (1999-2004) and director of the University of California PATH (Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways) Research Center (1997-2003). A multidisciplinary research program located at the Richmond Field Station, PATH conducts research in a variety of transportation areas including advanced vehicle control systems, advanced traffic management and information systems, and technology leading to an automated highway system.

Prior to joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, Hedrick was a professor of Mechanical Engineering (1974-88) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, where he directed the Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory.