An organization dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practice of systems and control in engineering has recognized a faculty member in the Naveen Jindal School of Management with an award that recognizes “outstanding contributions to control systems engineering, science or technology.”

The Control Systems Society, an organizational unit of the Institute of Electronics and Electric Engineers (IEEE) has recognized Dr. Alain Bensoussan of the Jindal School with its IEEE Control Systems Award for 2024. Based in New Jersey, the IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

Bensoussan, Lars Magnus Ericsson Chair and a professor in the Jindal School’s Operations Management Area, will receive the IEEEControl Systems Society Award on Dec.15, 2024 in Milano, Italy. He was selected for his fundamental contributions to stochasticcontrol, developing risk and decision analysis, control-theoretic methods in management and finance, and his leadership of scientific and engineering organizations.

Since joining The University of Texas at Dallas in 2004, Bensoussan has been devoted to developing risk and decision analysis into a distinct scientific field. This is the mission of the Jindal School’s International Center for Decision and Risk Analysis, which he heads as director. He first became interested in the field while serving as president of the Council of the European Space Agency, 1999-2002, and president of the National Center for Space Studies, France (CNES), 1996-2003.

“Space is a risky business,” he said. “It’s not the only risky business. Finance, drilling for oil, and nuclear plants are all risky businesses. Risk is a part of our lives, and it is something to consider with attention.”

Bensoussan’s primary research interest is stochastic control — finding controls to guide dynamic systems such as rockets, machines and organizations that are dealing with randomly determined events and uncertainties.

“I am a mathematician, but my interest in risk is not just mathematical but organizational and human,” he said. “You can know what to do to make profits and at the same time prevent technical accidents, but humans make mistakes.” The similarities of risk management across industries or fields “justifies this field as a science,” Bensoussan said. “It is an important branch of management science that can be applied in numerous situations.”

Bensoussan is a member of the French Academy of Sciences and the French Academy of Technologies. He is a Fellow of AMS, IEEE and SIAM.