Erol Gelenbe

Erol Gelenbe
Born	(1945-08-22) August 22, 1945 Istanbul
Nationality	Turkish
Alma mater	Ankara Koleji Middle East Technical University
Known for	G-networks
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Liège Paris-Sud 11 University New Jersey Institute of Technology Duke University University of Central Florida Imperial College
Doctoral advisor	Edward J. Smith Jacques-Louis Lions

Sami Erol Gelenbe is a Turkish computer scientist, engineer and applied mathematician well known for random neural networks and the eponymous G-networks. He is currently the Dennis Gabor Professor at Imperial College London. In 2008 he received the ACM SIGMETRICS Award . He is a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences and of the French Academy of Technologies. He is active in research projects funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and by the European Union. He has graduated over fifty PhD students throughout his career.

Academic career

Gelenbe graduated from Ankara Koleji in 1962. He graduated with High Honours from the Middle East Technical University (Ankara) in 1966, winning the K.K. Clarke Research Award for work on "partial flux switching magnetic memory systems". He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowhsip to study at Polytechnic University (Brooklyn Poly) in New York. Working under Edward J. Smith, he completed his Master's degree and PhD thesis on Stochastic automata with structural restrictions.

After graduation he joined the University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor. In 1972, on leave from Michigan, he founded the research group at INRIA (France) on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computer Systems, and was a visiting lecturer at the University of Paris 13 University. In 1971 he was elected to the second Chair in Computer Science at the University of Liège, which he joined in 1973 while remaining a research director at INRIA. He was awarded a Doctorat d’État ès Sciences Mathématiques from the Paris VI University with a thesis on Modèlisation des systèmes informatiques in 1973.

He moved to the Paris-Sud 11 University (Paris Orsay) in 1979 where he co-founded the Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique and its PhD Program; he then joined Paris Descartes University in 1986 . He moved to the New Jersey Institute of Technology and worked as a New Jersey State Endowed Professor at its Department of Computer Science and Information Systems between 1991 to 1993. Then he was a Chaired professor at Duke University and Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering between 1993 to 1998. He was University Chair Professor from 1998-2003 at the University of Central Florida where he founded the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

In 2003 moved to Imperial College London as Professor of Computer and Communication Networks. In October 2006 he was appointed Dennis Gabor Professor of Electrical Engineering following Igor Aleksander's retirement in 2002.

Notable contributions

He contributed both theoretical and applied research concerning the performance of multiprogramming computer systems, virtual memory management, data base reliability optimisation, distributed systems and network protocols. He carried out some of the first work on the adaptive control of computer systems, and published seminal papers on the performance analysis and optimisation of computer network protocols and on the use of diffusion approximations for network performance. He developed the mathematics of new product form queueing networks with negative customers and triggers 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. His inventions include the design of the first random access fibre-optics local area network, a patented admission control technique for ATM networks, a neural network based anomaly detector for brain magnetic resonance scans, and the "cognitive packet network" routing protocol to offer quality of service to users. 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 academia and industry in France, Turkey, Belgium, the U.S., Venezuela, Canada, 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.

Awards

• ACM SIGMETRICS Award [3] describes him "as the single individual who, over a span of 30 years, has made the greatest overall contribution to the field of Computer System and Network Performance Evaluation"
• Knight Commander in the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, or "Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidarieta Italiana", 2007
• Member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
• Member of the French Academy of Technologies or "Academie des Technologies"
• Member of Academia Europaea
• Docteur en Sciences "Honoris Causa", University of Liege Belgium
• Dottore Ingegnere "Honoris Causa", University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy, 1996
• Doctor "Honoris Causa" from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul
• Commander of Merit of Italy (Commendatore in the "Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana"), 2005
• Chevalier des Palmes Academiques, France
• Officer of the Ordre National du Mérite of France
• Fellow of the ACM, New York, USA
• France Telecom Prize, one of the Grands Prix of the French Academy of Science, 1996
• Parlar Foundation Science Award, Turkey, 1994
• Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Merite, France, 1991
• Fellow of the IEEE, New York, USA, 1986
• IFIPS (IFIP) Silver Core Award, 1980

Selected Bibliography

• E. Gelenbe "On languages defined by linear probabilistic automata," Information and Control, 16(5):487-501, July 1970.
• E. Gelenbe "A realizable model for stochastic sequential machines," IEEE Trans. Comput. 20, 199-204 (1971).
• E. Gelenbe "On approximate computer system models," Journal of the ACM 22(2):261-269 (April 1975).
• E. Gelenbe and I. Mitrani "Analysis and synthesis of computer systems," Academic Press (June 1980), 239 pp., ISBN 0122793501, ISBN 978-0122793509.
• E. Gelenbe "On the optimum checkpoint interval," Journal of the ACM, 26(2):259-270, April 1979.
• E. Gelenbe "Product-Form queueing networks with negative and positive customers," Journal of Applied Probability, Vol. 28 (3): 656-663 (Sep., 1991).
• E. Gelenbe, Mao, Z.H., Li, Y.D. "Function approximation with spiked random networks,", IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks, 10 (1): 3-9, 1999.
• E. Gelenbe and G. Pujolle "Introduction to Queueing Networks," John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, NY, USA, 1987 and 2000.
• E. Gelenbe, R. Lent and Z. Xu "Design and performance of a cognitive packet network," Performance Evaluation, 46, (2-3): 155-176, October 2001.
• E. Gelenbe and Hussain K.F. "Learning in the multiple class random neural network, " IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, 13(6): 1257-1267, Nov. 2002.
• E. Gelenbe, Gellman, M. Lent, R., Liu P. and Pu Su "Autonomous smart routing for network QoS," Autonomic Computing, 2004. Proc. International Conference on Autonomic Computing: 232-239, ISBN 0-7695-2114-2, , 17-18 May 2004.
• J.-M. Fourneau and E. Gelenbe "Flow equivalence and stochastic equivalence in G-networks," DOI 10.1007/s10287-003-0008-z, Computational Management Science, 1 (2): 179-192, July 2004.
• E. Gelenbe "Analysis of automated auctions," ISCIS'06, Computer and Information Sciences, 21st International Symposium, Istanbul, Turkey, November 1-3, 2006, ISCIS), Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, LNCS 4263, ISBN 3-540-47242-8, pp. 1–12, 2006.
• E. Gelenbe "Steady-state solution of probabilistic gene regulatory networks," Physical Review E, 76(1), 031903 (2007).
• E. Gelenbe "A Diffusion Model for Packet Travel Time in a Random Multi-Hop Medium," ACM Trans. on Sensor Networks, 3 (2), Article 10, June 2007.

Further reading

• M. Ufuk Çaglayan "Erol Gelenbe's Career and Contributions" in Proc. ISCIS 2005, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS No. 3733, ISBN 3-540-29414-7, pp. 966–970, Berlin and Heidelberg, 2005.
• A. Bensoussan "Erol Gelenbe's Contributions to Computer and Networks Performance" pp. 1–5, in J. Barria (ed.) "Communication Networks and Computer Systems: A Tribute to Professor Erol Gelenbe.", Imperial College Press, World Scientific, 2006.

• J. Barria (ed.) "Communication Networks and Computer Systems: A Tribute to Professor Erol Gelenbe.", Imperial College Press, World Scientific, ISBN 1860946593, London and Singapore, 2006.

External links

• [4] Erol Gelenbe at Imperial College
• [5] Interview published in ACM Ubiquity.
• [6] Erol Gelenbe's Publications as listed in the DBLP Computer Science Bibliography and his List of Collaborators (including his doctoral students).