Erol Gelenbe
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Erol Gelenbe (born Istanbul, August 22, 1945) is a Turkish born computer scientist, engineer and applied mathematician, who participated in the creation of the field of computer and network performance evaluation. He is descended from the 18th century Ottoman mathematician Gelenbevi Ismail Efendi (1730-1790) who taught at the Ottoman Naval Academy. The high school (lycee) Gelenbevi Lisesi in Istanbul perpetuates the family name. Notable relatives include the Ottoman Cabinet Minister Mehmet Cemaleddin Efendi (1848-1917), the Istanbul Mayor and pioneering surgeon Cemil Topuzlu (1868-1958) also known as Cemil Pasha, the film director Baha Gelenbevi (1907-1984) and the opera singer Ren Gelenbevi.
[edit] Academic career
Erol Gelenbe graduated with high honours from the Middle East Technical University (Ankara) in 1966, winning the K.K. Clarke Research Award, and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowhsip to study for a PhD at Polytechnic University (Brooklyn Poly) in New York. He completed his Master's and then his PhD degree on "Stochastic automata with structural restrictions" in 1969 and joined the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). Having to fulfill the foreign residency requirements of his Fulbright Fellowship, he joined INRIA (France) in 1972, founding its research group on "Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computer Systems", and was a visiting lecturer at the University of Paris XIII in 1973; he then earned a "Doctorat d'Etat es Sciences" degree from the University of Paris VI that year with a thesis on "Modeles mathematiques de systemes informatiques". In the Fall of 1974 he joined the University of Liege in Belgium as a Chaired Professor, and moved to the University of Paris XI in 1979. During 1993 to 2003 he held a Chaired professorship at Duke University where he headed the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and in Computer Science and Experimental Psychology, and then was University Chair Professor at the University of Central Florida where he founded the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Since 2003 he holds the Dennis Gabor Chair named after the Nobel laureate Dennis Gabor at Imperial College (London).
[edit] Notable contributions
He contributed both theoretical and applied research concerning the performance of multiprogramming computer systems, virtual memory management, data base optimisation, distributed systems and network protocols. He has developed the mathematics of new product form queueing networks with negative customers and triggers which are known as "G-Networks". He has also introduced a new spiked stochastic neural network model known as the random neural network, developed its mathematical solution and learning algorithms, and applied it to both engineering and biological problems. He has introduced and developed the "cognitive packet network" routing protocol to offer user based quality of service. Erol has collaborated with the telecommunications and computer industry in the framework of funded projects and as a consultant. He has graduated more than fifty PhD students who are active in France, Turkey, Belgium, the USA, Venezuela, Greece, the UK and other countries.
In 1986, he founded the ISCIS (International Symposium on Computer and Information Sciences) series of conferences that have been held annually in Turkey to bring together Turkish computer scientists with their counterparts across the world. Typically held at the end of October, these meetings have now been continuing for more than twenty years.
In 1982 he conceived and implemented a national program in France for vocational training in computer technology called the "Programme des VFI (Volontaires pour la Formation a l'Informatique)". From 1984 to 1986 he served as the Science and Technology Advisor to the French Secretary of State for Universities and introduced a basic course in computer science for all university students across the country in all degree programs.
[edit] Awards
Erol's research contributions and leadership have won him the Parlar Foundation Science Award in Turkey (1994), the France Telecom Prize, one of the Grands Prix (http://www.institut-de-france.fr/prixmecenat/as.htm#grandprix) of the French Academy of Science (1996), election to Academia Europaea (2005), the IFIP Silver Core (1980), election to Fellow of the IEEE (1986), Fellow of ACM (2001) and Fellow of IEE (2003), and honorary doctorates from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy (1996), Bogazici University, Istanbul (2004) and the University of Liege, Belgium (2006). He has received the following decorations: Officer of the Ordre National du Merite of France, Commander of Merit of Italy (Commendatore in the "Ordine al Merito della Repubblica"), and the Palmes Academiques.
