Stephen P. Boyd

Biography

An IEEE Fellow, Stephen P. Boyd is the Samsung Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Boyd’s vision that convex optimization methods can transform the theory and practice of control system analysis and design has led to one of the most important developments in the field over the last 25 years. Working with other researchers, Boyd developed a new style of research in control that combines advanced mathematical concepts with effective numerical computation, using a formal reduction process of a control problem to a convex optimization problem. Convex optimization problems are readily and reliably solved numerically, so the reduction gives a theoretical and practical solution of the original problem. No one is considered to have done more to articulate, develop, systematize, advance, and popularize the role of convex optimization than Dr. Boyd. He has helped to develop many of the basic computational techniques, showed how to apply them to problems in systems and control, and illuminated the powerful connections to essential concepts in other disciplines, such as computational mathematics, statistics, machine learning, finance, circuit design, networking, and signal processing.