Lotfi Zadeh -Who was Lotfi Asker Zadeh? Google Doodle celebrates Lotfi Zadeh for fuzzy logic

Lotfi Zedeh, Azerbaijani-American computer scientist, electrical engineer, and professor.

On 30 November, 1964, Zadeh submitted “Fuzzy Sets,” a groundbreaking paper, that introduced the world to his innovative mathematical framework called, “fuzzy logic.” 

Lotfi Asker Zadeh, was born on February 4, 1921, in Baku, Azerbaijan (then a Soviet Socialist republic). 

At 10 years old, he moved with his family, to his father’s homeland of Iran. 

His exceptional academic achievements, brought him to the U.S., to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his graduate studies. 

He went on, to earn his doctorate in electrical engineering, in 1949, and later, taught systems theory, at Columbia University in New York. 

In 1959, he became a professor, at the University of California, Berkeley, which remained his academic home throughout his career, and where he made his most famous and fuzzy breakthrough. 

In 1965, he published “Fuzzy Sets,” which has since been cited by scholars nearly 100,000 times. 

The theory he presented, offered an alternative, to the rigid “black and white” parameters of traditional logic, and instead allowed for more ambiguous or “fuzzy” boundaries, that more closely mimic the way humans see the world. 

This concept has since been applied to a huge range of technological applications, from a Japanese subway system, to the anti-skid algorithms, that keep cars safe on the road.  

Known as a gracious, yet brilliant thinker, Zadeh received countless accolades throughout his career, including an honorary professorship, from the government of Azerbaijan, in 1993.