Roger Ware Brockett (October 22, 1938 – March 19, 2023) was an American control theorist and the An Wang Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Harvard University, who founded the Harvard Robotics Laboratory in 1983. Brockett became a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1991 for outstanding contributions to the theory and practice of linear and nonlinear control systems.

Biography

Brockett was born on October 22, 1938, in Seville, Ohio, to Roger Lawrence and Grace Ester (Patch) Brockett. Brockett received his B.S. from Case Western Reserve University in 1960, and continued on to receive his M.S. in 1962 and his Ph.D. in 1964 from Case Western Reserve University as well. His Ph.D. dissertation was The Invertibility of Dynamic Systems with Application to Control under the supervision of Mihajlo D. Mesarovic. At Case Western, Brockett was classmates with Donald Knuth. After teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1969, he joined the faculty at Harvard University. At Harvard, Brockett became the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Mathematics and in 1989 the An Wang Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Brockett was known for his work on control theory and linear differential systems; in 1970 he published the textbook Finite Dimensional Linear Systems. Brockett has advised over 50 students, including Daniel Liberzon, Jan Willems, David Dobkin, John Baras, P. S. Krishnaprasad, and John Baillieul. After experiencing a series of cardiac events, Brockett died at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, on March 19, 2023, at the age of 84.

Awards and honors

Brockett received several awards and honors, including: