IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Magazine - July 2018 - 43

my deepest condolences to all scientists around the world who have either followed his works, known him,
or seen him.
Here are some distinctive quotes
from Prof. Zadeh, extracted from Fay
Zadeh's (Sand's) book:
1) "I agree entirely with everything
you did not say."
2) "To survive in this place, you need to
kill yourself" (said during his term
as chairman of the Department of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley).
3) "If I am on my death bed and they
say there is a good garage sale
nearby, I will try to get up" (making fun of his known love of ga rage sales).
For more, see Zadeh's (Sand's) book
My Life and Travels with the Father
of Fuzzy Logic.
Citations
Prof. Zadeh holds the all-time record
of Google Scholar citations.
All

Since 2012

Citations

186,416

68,793

h-index

106

I10-index

317

181

-Lutcher Brown, University
of Texas, San Antonio, who knew
Prof. Zadeh for 49 years and
coined his title of "The Father of
Fuzzy Logic" in 1992.
A Great Mentor and Friend
Prof. Zadeh's passing was a great loss
to the world and to me, personally,
as he had been a great mentor and
friend since 1959. My master's degree
thesis that year solved the problem of
identifying linear time-variant (LTV)
communication channels, which he
appreciated since his doctoral work
was on LTV systems. Prof. Zadeh was
then the predominant figure in system theory, so his support greatly
helped me over the years. His physical condition was poor when we visited him two years ago, but his mind
was sharp, sending a typically gener-

During the 2014 norbert Weiner IEEE Systems, man, and Cybernetics
Panel. Participants (from left to right): Prof. bill rouse, Prof. Keith W. Hipel,
Prof. zadeh, Dr. Dimitar Filev, Dr. José del r. milan, Prof. Larry Hall, and the
late Prof. bill gruver. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Keith Hipel, University of
Waterloo.)

ous note the day after. The memory
of this colossus will remain forever.

from now. We all lost a great friend
and a scientific giant. We miss him
and his wife very much.

-Thomas Kailath
Unique Abilities
Some researchers generate ideas,
others promote them, some combine
different ideas, and still others implement these ideas into practice. Prof.
Zadeh had a unique ability to excel
in almost all of this and left only
implementation to others. I admire
his great ideas as well as his unique
ability to promote them. He would
enter to a skeptical and sometimes
hostile audience, like an early Christian being led to the lions, and use
plain words, simple examples, and a
smile on his face to convince many
skeptics; the lions have been magically tamed. The world needs people
like him!
-Vladik Kreinovich
Top Scientist and Visionary
Prof. Zadeh was our mentor, advisor,
teacher, and friend. He was an exemplary human being. He and his wife
were very friendly, and they both had
a great sense of humor. He is one
of the top scientists and visionaries of all time, impacting computer
science, electrical engineering, and
applied mathematics for generations
to come. He will be greatly remembered in history and science books
hundreds and thousands of years
Ju ly 2018

-Bijan Tadayon and
Saied Tadayon
Thoughtful and Courteous
Prof. Zadeh will be remembered not
only for his impressive seven decades
of contributions to computational
reasoning, as expressed in natural
language, fuzzy logic, and soft computing, but also for his thoughtfulness and courtesy. I distinctly recall
the first time I read about his view
on complex systems and decision
processes [1]; I was very impressed.
Those of us who were fortunate enough to know him and his lovely wife
Fay, we have been blessed.
-James Tien
Ahead of His Time
Prof. Zadeh was a universally recognized scientist who broke through
many traditional obstacles and was
ahead of his time by 50-100 years. He
was a very genial, simple man and, at
the same time, a man of principle. His
simplicity equaled his greatness. He
was always enthusiastic in research
and collaboration and brought a
lot of ideas to draw together theory
and practice.
I met Prof. Zadeh for the first time
in Moscow at the Institute of Control
Sciences of the Academy of Sciences

IEEE SyStEmS, man, & CybErnEtICS magazInE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Magazine - July 2018