Lotfi A. Zadeh’s Biography and Scientific Legacy: Soft Computing, Systems Theory, Decision, and Control
This paper describes Professor Lotfi A.Zadeh’s life and his scientific legacy. The work begins with his birthplace, Baku, Azerbaijan, as well as his period of residence in Baku from birth until he was 10 years old. After that, he moved to Iran, where he lived until he turned 23 years old. Afterwards, he moved to the States for the purpose of getting an education. The paper also describes Studying and working in the States (Doctoral studies) and some information about his Family. Zadeh’s articles and the first results of scientific work, as well as Scientific discoveries (how the theory was born, the history of this theory, and its features), are described in this work too.
His collaborations with other scientists (his teacher Norbert Wiener, Rudolf Kalman, Charles A. Desoer, and others) are described in detail in this paper. The paper describes scientific life by years, from the last stage of life.
The paper also describes his visit to his country of origin, Azerbaijan, where he participated in the International Exhibition of Telecommunications and Information Technologies (BakuTel 2008), attended the reception of the President of Azerbaijan, and met with his close scientific friends.
This paper contains information for the five years that he was not with us. We have held two conferences: the 2018 7th World Conference on Soft Computing dedicated to the scientific activities of Professor Lotfi A. Zadeh and the 2022 8th and 8th World Conference on Soft Computing dedicated to the scientific activities and 100th anniversary birthday of Professor Lotfi A. Zadeh. We have published three books; two of them are selected papers from the 8th World conference on Soft Computing, and we dedicated one book within one year of his death. We will continue to work on his theories and ideas in the future, and we will continue to hold subsequent conferences dedicated to the scientific activities of Professor Zadeh.
Prof. Shahnaz N. Shahbazova
Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC), Azerbaijan
Dr. Shahnaz N. Shahbazova received the academic degree of PhD in 1995, the academic title of associate professor in 1996, and the academic degree of Doctor of Sciences in Engineering in 2015. Since 2002, she has been an academician and, since 2014, Vice-President of the Lotfi A. Zadeh International Academy of Sciences. Since 2011, she has held the position of General Chairman and organizer of the World Conference on Soft Computing (WConSC), dedicated to the preservation and development of the scientific heritage of Professor Lotfi A. Zadeh. She is an honorary professor at the University of Obuda in Hungary and the “Aurel Vlaicu” University of Arad in Romania, and an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy of Technical Sciences at the UNESCO International Personnel Academy.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of the North American Society for Fuzzy Information Processing (NAFIPS); moderator of the Berkeley Soft Computing Initiative (BISC) group; member of the council 3338.01 “System Analysis, Management, and Information Processing” for the defense of PhD and doctoral dissertations, as well as chairman of the seminar of the same council at the Azerbaijan Technical University.
Dr. Shahbazova participated in many international conferences as an organizer, Honorary Chair, Session Chair, member of Steering, advisory, or International Program committees, and Keynote Speaker. She is president of the Fuzzy System Association in Baku.
She’s received awards from India (3 months, 1998), Germany (DAAD, 3 months, 1999, 2003, 2010), the USA, California, and Berkeley University (Fulbright, 2007-2008, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017). She is the author of more than 224 scientific articles, 8 methodological manuals, 9 textbooks, 3 monographs, and 9 books published by Springer. Her research interests include Artificial Intelligence, Soft Computing, Intelligent Systems, Machine Learning, Methods for Decision-Making, and Fuzzy Neural Networks
