Famous Azerbaijani scientist Lotfi Zadeh dies

By Sara Israfilbayova

A world-renowned Azerbaijani scientist, founder of fuzzy logic Lotfi Zadeh passed away on September 6 at 7:30 am California time aged 96.

The world-renowned scientist, Lotfi Zadeh, was a professor emeritus of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, and the director of the Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing.

Profesor’s son Norman Zadeh earlier stressed that Lotfi Zadeh's last will was to be buried in Azerbaijan.

The letter about the burial of Lotfi Zadeh in Azerbaijan was transferred to a close friend of the Zade's, professor of the Azerbaijan Technical University Shahnaz Shahbazova, Azertac reported.

Lotfi Zadeh, who is mentioned in the same breath as Aristotle and Albert Einstein, was born in Baku, Azerbaijan on February 4, l92l. The young Zadeh grew up in Iran. Graduating from the University of Tehran in 1942 with a degree in electrical engineering, he went on to pursue a MS degree in electrical engineering at MIT, which he obtained in 1946.

Parents of Zadeh at this time lived in New York, where he entered the Columbia University, and after defending his thesis in 1949 remained there as an assistant in the engineering department.

Lotfi Zadeh is best known for proposing the fuzzy mathematics in the 1960s.The theory of fuzzy logic caused a revolution worldwide and entirely changed the concept of cybernetics and played an important role in space satellites, cognition and the study of images, the Earth and the Universe, and in research into UFOs.

The essence of fuzzy logic is that the world is a variety of shades - from black to white. To put it scientifically, in this world nothing is absolute in mathematical terms, as everything varies to a certain degree on a scale of 0-1, thus, between zero and one there are dozens, hundreds, of other shades.The word "fuzzy" is used because the borders of white and whitish, scarlet and red are fuzzy; there is a continuous transition from one to the other.

The theory is widely applied in all areas of modern industry - robotics, mechanical engineering, electronics, fifth and sixth generation super computers and defense technology.

The theory of fuzzy logic forms the basis of fuzzy technology throughout the world. The theory plays an important role in the US space programme. In Japan, camera and video equipment are produced on the basis of fuzzy logic while in Europe a variety of “smart” systems operate on fuzzy logic.

Fuzzy logic is not Professor Zadeh´s only theory. He developed the theories of system and optimal filters. The theory of optimal filtration is a new step in modern mathematics, cybernetics and computerization, and is valued not only for its scientific originality, but also its practical results.

The theories of multiple valued optimization and impressions in dynamic systems were also developed by Zadeh. 

Professor Lotfi Zadeh has received many honors worldwide.