On a whim in 1978, a young college graduate wrote a letter to a man he did not know — a man who lived on the other side of the world — a man who would change his life forever.
Pramod Khargonekar was living in Bombay, India, about to start graduate school and thought he should be studying with the best in the world.
“I knew who the best was,” said Khargonekar, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Florida.
Rudolph Kalman was the best — a world authority in systems theory and professor in UF’s Department of Electrical Engineering.
“So I wrote him a letter,” Khargonekar said. “And told him ‘I would love to work under you on my Ph.D., but I can’t come if I don’t have financial assistance because I am too poor.’ Within a month he wrote me back saying he was happy to receive me as a student and that he would take care of the rest. Before I knew it, I was here [in Gainesville, Fla.]. That letter was the turning point in my life.”
In 1981, Khargonekar received his doctorate in electrical engineering UF and immediately became part of the engineering faculty, sealing his fate as a lifelong Florida Gator.
Khargonekar’s career took him, his new wife, Seema, and their newborn son, Aditya, from Gainesville in 1984 when he joined the University of Minnesota. In 1989, he became a faculty member of the University of Michigan and eventually became chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science.
In 2001, as if fate had planned it, Khargonekar became dean of the University of Florida College of Engineering. He, his wife, son and daughter, Shivangi, returned to Florida.
“My destiny is tied up in the city of Gainesville, Fla.,” Khargonekar said. Though Khargonekar’s destiny may be anchored in Gainesville, his passion thrives in the classroom. He says the most fun — real fun — he’s had in his career has been working with students.
Khargonekar believes it is imperative to reach out to freshmen and foster their excitement and enthusiasm as they enter the College of Engineering, after all — they are the leaders of tomorrow. And he does more than talk about it — as dean he has taught two freshman courses since 2004. In addition to a passion for teaching, Khargonekar has matching enthusiasm for his research and an impressive list of accolades and awards to accompany his drive.
Khargonekar’s research areas include learning and intelligent systems, control of semiconductor manufacturing systems, logic control of manufacturing systems and control color xerography. Khargonekar is a recipient of NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize, the George Axelby Best Paper Award, the Hugo Schuck ACC Best Paper Award, the Japan Society for Promotion of Science Fellowship and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He says he is the most proud of the American Automatic Control Council’s Donald Eckman Award.
From a fanciful whim in 1978, to a resume of accomplishments, including establishing the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2002, Khargonekar is focused on cementing the future of the College of Engineering as an internationally recognized, premier engineering school. Pramod Khargonekar, holstering ambition on one side and unstoppable drive on the other, has come full circle and is racing to put the University of Florida College of Engineering where it belongs — the top.