Automatica Prize Paper Awards 2008

IFAC Automatica Prize Paper Awards have been given since 1981, for outstanding contributions to the theory and/or practice of control engineering or control sciences, documented in a paper published in Automatica. Triennially three papers are selected for the award, in the categories of Survey, Theory/Methodology, and Applications. The funds for the three prizes are provided by the publisher of Automatica, Elsevier Ltd. The selection is made by the Automatica Prize Paper Awards Selection Subcommittee from among the papers published in Automatica in the previous triennium (in the present case, years 2005, 2006, and 2007, corresponding to volumes 41, 42, and 43) and Prizes are presented during the IFAC Congress. The subcommittee is formed under the IFAC Awards Committee after each IFAC Congress, held triennially. For the 2008 awards, Masayoshi Tomizuka, University of California, Berkeley, and David Clarke, Oxford University, had been appointed as chairs of the IFAC Awards Committee and of Automatica Prize Paper Awards Selection Subcommittee, respectively. The members of the 2008 Automatica Prize Paper Awards Subcommittee were Robert Bitmead, Sergio Bittanti, Hang Chang Chieh, David Clarke (Chair), Romeo Ortega, Akira Sano, Roberto Tempo, and Tamer Başar. Automatica Editors were asked to identify candidate papers (based also on recommendations of reviewers), and additional nominations were sought from the subcommittee members. As a result of this process, the subcommittee arrived at recommendations forwarded to the IFAC Awards Committee, which in turn selected the three papers listed below for the 2008 IFAC Automatica Prize Paper Award in the categories of Survey, Theory/Methodology, and Applications, respectively. Authors of winning papers received their awards at the IFAC Journal Awards Ceremonies on July 8, 2008, during the IFAC World Congress held in Seoul, Korea (July 6–11, 2008). The three award-winning papers are listed below along with a brief summary of contributions in each case.