Two Editorial Appointments

Automatica Editors David Limebeer and Peter Dorato are relinquishing their positions. They are succeeded by Raphael Sivan and Paul Van den Hof.

The Editor for Book Reviews, David Limebeer of Imperial College, London, was appointed in 1993, and is now handing over to Raphael Sivan of the Technion at Haifa. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) wrote

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

Joseph Brodsky (b. 1940) said

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

Substituting ''reviewing'' for ''reading'' makes the obligations of a self-respecting learned journal clear. An author and reader of books himself, Rafi Sivan knows these truths, and we look forward to the book and software reviews he plans to acquire in the tradition of his predecessors.

Peter Dorato (who is with the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque) has been associated with Automatica for a long time. He first was an Associate Editor from 1969 to 1982. In 1993 he returned as Associate Editor and in 1994 was appointed Editor for Rapid Publication and Technical Communiques. His dedication did much to enhance Automatica's reputation, and during his Editorship considerably more Technical Communiques were published than before. Peter sees the time fit to hand over to a person of a younger generation, and I am most pleased that Paul M. J. Van den Hof is willing to take over. Paul has worked for Automatica as an Associate Editor since 1992.

Automatica owes a great deal to the retiring Editors. I thank them warmly, and welcome the three new editors most cordially.

Huibert Kwakernaak
Editor-in-Chief

Raphael Sivan
Editor for Book and Software Reviews

Raphael Sivan was born in Germany in 1935, and emigrated to Israel in 1945. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology - Haifa, Israel in 1957, and the Ph. D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, CA, in 1963. He was an Assistant Professor at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, during 1963-1964. In 1964 he joined the academic staff of the Technion, and since 1974 he is Professor of Electrical Engineering, holding the Shirley and Burt Harris Chair.

During 1970-1971 he was a Senior Research Associate in the Flight Control Division of Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA. During 1991-1992 he was a Visiting Scientist at the RAFAEL - Israel's Ministry of Defence Laboratories - working in Radar and ECM. During 1978-1979 he was a Visiting Professor at the Man-Vehicle Laboratory, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA. During 1986-1987 he was a Visiting Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, MA. Finally, during 1990-1991 he was a Visiting Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK.

He served as Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion, and in December, 1998, he completed a seven year term as Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Technion. He is the author, jointly with H. Kwakernaak, of two books: Linear Optimal Control Systems, Wiley-Interscience, 1972, and Modern Signals and Systems, Prentice-Hall, 1991.

Paul M. J. Van den Hof
Editor for Fast Publication and Technical Communiques

Paul Van den Hof was born in Maastricht, The Netherlands, in 1957. He obtained the M. Sc. and Ph. D. degrees both from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, in 1982 and 1989, respectively. Since 1986 he has been working in the Mechanical Engineering Systems and Control Group at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, where since 1991 he holds a position as Associate Professor. In 1992 he held a short term visiting position at the Centre for Industrial Control Science, The University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia.

Dr. Van den Hof's research interests are in issues of system identification, parametrization, and the interplay between identification and robust control design, with applications to mechanical servo systems and industrial process control systems.

From 1992 to 1998 he as acted as an Associate Editor of Automatica. Dr. Van den Hof is a Senior Member of IEEE.