Systems, Man & Cybernetics - October 2016 - 25

agent-based industrial control and
a great contributor to the activities
of HMS. He was able to build an efficient bridge between academia and
industry, as well as promote the role
of IEEE SMCS.
Later, when he convinced me to
apply for the position of the editor-inchief (EiC) of IEEE Transactions on
Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Part
C in 2005, he was extremely instrumental in helping me in the execution
of the many duties involved. He was
ready to advise me for nearly 24 h a
day. His support, especially in the first
years of my EiC duties, was tremendous and irreplaceable.
Bill was a great supporter of everything new; he was a promoter of
changes. Moreover, he loved the actions required to support the changes.
I will remember him forever as a
person who enthusiastically help ed
to increase IEEE SMCS membership in China, as well as in the former Eastern European countries.
I enjoyed his participation in the
preparatory activities of the IEEE
SMCS Workshop on Distributed Systems held in Prague in 2006 and in a
similar event held in Athens in 2008.
These events helped to constitute and
shape the TC on DIS under his leadership. And, this TC has always been
very proactive, organizing regular
events and special sessions, mainly
thanks to his dedication to the job of
the TC chair.
He demonstrated his persistence
in bringing the new web solution for
IEEE SMCS into operation. He was
very helpful, extremely patient, and
persistent in ongoing communications
with a number of TC chairs in implementing the idea, and he did it as a real
gentleman, with pleasure, excitement,
and a sense of responsibility.
Bill just lived for the IEEE SMCS;
our Society was like home to him. He
tried to gently help everybody. He was
extremely diplomatic in communication, but with principal and ethical
viewpoints. We will miss the presence

of Bill as a silent, modest, but efficient
creator of an outstanding working
atmosphere on the Society management level as well as in the Society as
a whole. I am proud that I had both
the honor and privilege to work with
him on a regular basis for many years.
Simply put, he had a great and exceptional personality. Let us keep him in
our memories forever.

retired in 2007 reluctantly because it
was a mandatory policy. In fact, Bill
became more active in the Society after his retirement because he said he
had more time to travel for the Society's events.
I worked with Bill in organizing
the IEEE SMC 2014. He, as the general
chair, presented his characteristics of
vision, passion, hard work, and creativity in establishing the organization
Vladimir Marik
team of the conference and advertisVice President Cybernetics
ing the conference in many innovative
Cochair of TC DIS
ways. This conference was a very successful event.
Bill proposed the TC on DIS with
From Haibin Zhu
his
vision in systems engineering. In
I met Bill in 2003, when I attended the
his proposal, he stated, "Most infor2003 IEEE SMC Conference in Washmation and processing systems are
ington, D.C. At the beginning, I knew
based on centralized technologies
that Bill was a nice gentleman, welland design principles in which the
dressed, and talked slowly and clearly.
information and knowledge are cenAfter a short time, I recognized that he
tralized at strategic sites, with access,
was not only nice but also much more.
command, and control organized in
The next year, I tried to establish
client-server archia new TC on Roletectures. CentralBased Collaboraized systems have
tion. Bill contacted
Bill just lived for
many disadvantagme and invited me
the IEEE SMCS; our
es that make them
to join the TC on DIS
unsuitable for largerather than creating
Society was like
scale integration. By
a new TC. Bill's kindhome to him.
distributing impleness, politeness, and
mentation details
vision on DIS conof the logistical and
vinced me. I acceptintegration requirements, it is posed his invitation and started to work
sible to achieve greatly improved reliwith him in the scope of DIS.
ability, scalability, and security."
Bill organized the International
He believed that "intelligent disWorkshop on DIS in Prague, Czech
tributed systems are based on the use
Republic, in 2006, which was a sucof cooperative agents, organized in
cessful event technically supported
hardware or software components,
by the TC on DIS. After the establishthat each independently handles a
ment of the TC on DIS, Bill worked
small set of specialized tasks and covery hard in recruiting TC members.
operate to achieve system-level goals
Every year, he suggested candidates
and a high degree of flexibility." His
to cochairs to discuss and approve.
vision of DIS promotes the developNow the TC has 45 members.
ment of the research community
Bill thought very broadly about
on DIS and the applications of the
the development of the TC and the
research results.
SMCS. He often talked with me about
the regulations of the Society and the
Haibin Zhu
TC with the aim of making the SociCochair
ety and the TC develop smoothly and
TC on DIS
sustainably. Bill liked working. He

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