Prof. Miroslav Simandl (January 6, 1954 - March 23, 2015) received his Ing. (MSc) degree in Control Engineering in 1978 and CSc. (PhD) degree in Technical Cybernetics in 1984, both from the Institute of Technology in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia. In the period 1978-1992, he held various research and teaching positions at the Institute of Technology in Pilsen. In the period 1993-2001, he was an associate professor, and since 2002 he held the position of professor at the Department of Cybernetics, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic. Since 2011, he was the vice-rector for research and development at the University of West Bohemia and head of the research team “Identification and Decision Making under Uncertainty” at the European Centre of Excellence NTIS at the University of West Bohemia.

Throughout his academic career, Prof. Simandl focused his research on state estimation, information fusion, system identification, optimal and adaptive control, and fault detection. Within the state estimation area he developed nonlinear filters, especially an advanced version of the point-mass method, particle filters, and derivative-free filters; he also proposed calculation of the Cramér-Rao bound used for filter evaluation. In the area of information fusion, he advanced the idea of fusion of probability density functions of the system state. He also dealt with the system identification based on classical approaches and also neural networks. A great deal of effort he spent on the optimal dual and bicriterial control. He originated the idea of using closed-loop information processing strategy in the fault detection and designed a new active fault detection approach. He not only focused on theory but he also applied the proposed methods in various fields such as navigation system design, controller design for cold-rolling mills, fault detection for smart houses, and optimal portfolio design and optimal investment strategy in econometry.

He published over 150 scientific papers in leading journals (e.g., IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Automatica, Information Fusion,) and prestigious conferences (organized e.g., by ISIF, IEEE, IFAC). Within the International Federation of Automatic Control, he served as the co-chair of the International Program Committee of the 16th IFAC World Congress in Prague, 2005, and was a member of two technical committees “Modelling, Identification, and Signal Processing” and “Economic and Business Systems”. He was a member of the editorial board of the journal “International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science”.

Miroslav Simandl was not only the scientist but also a university professor, who was very much liked and highly regarded by his students and colleagues. He led several courses on estimation theory, system identification, fault detection, and adaptive control, was the author of three textbooks, and was the advisor of 12 Ph.D. students who successfully defended their dissertation theses. In 2015, he received the Werner von Siemens Excellence Award for Basic Research for his contribution to the area of “Novel Approaches and Methods of Nonlinear State Estimation and Optimal Decision under Uncertainty”.

Submitted by Jindrich Dunik