Photo Gallery of
Mathukumalli Vidyasagar
Fellow of The Royal Society
National Science Chair &
Distinguished Professor
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad

Contents

Poster from ICM 2010

Images from The Royal Society Induction Ceremony

The following photos are provided through the kind courtesy of The Royal Society. They were taken at the time of my induction on 13 July, 2012 (Friday the 13th!)

• Signing the charter book of The Royal Society. Photo
• Finished signing the charter book, with a look of relief that says "Whew, I managed not to spill ink on everyone else's signatures"! Photo
• Shaking hands with Sir Paul Nurse, President of The Royal Society, after signing. Photo
• The "Class of 2012". Photo
• On the balcony of the premises of The Royal Society. The beauty of the building can be gleaned from this photo. Photo

Images from The Royal Society Charter Book

The charter book of The Royal Society dates back to 1663 and contains the signatures of (almost) all Fellows and Foreign Members. Two notable exceptions I found were Einstein and Ramanujan. The signatures of Original Fellows such as Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren are found on page 1 (I believe). Newton signed on page 9. We signed on page 150. It is truly a humbling experience to see the signatures of all-time greats of science and makes one question whether he really belongs in their company.

The pages are made of vellum and are practically indestructible. Clearly there are enough blank pages to last another century. (See the photo of me signing the book, above.) In earlier years new Fellows signed using a quill pen (albeit with a metal tip), an exercise that apparently "terrified" them. This year they gave us the option of signing with a fountain pen (yuk) or a nib pen. About half of us, including myself, opted for the nib pen dipped in a pot of ink as being closer in spirit to the quill pen.

Assembled here are some notable signatures. I took these photos myself so the choice of personages is dictated by my own taste.

• First, the signatures of all who were inducted this year. Fellows and Foreign Members.
• The signature of Isaac Newton. It is very prim and tiny in comparison to the rest of the signatures. You can amuse yourself by trying to identify the owners of these signatures. For this purpose the list of all Fellows from 1660 to 2007, found here might be helpful. Give up? The answers are here.
• The signatures of Hooke and Wren. Robert Hooke signed so far into the binding that one cannot see the "Robert" part; his signature is at the extreme lower left. Christopher Wren's signature in on the right side, near the middle of the page.
• Pages 6 and 7 of the charter book, containing the signatures of some Fellows who predate Newton (who signed on page 9) here.
• Edmund Halley here
• Signatures some other notables: Charles Darwin, (containing also the signature of J. J. Sylvester) James Clerk Maxwell, and Godfrey Harold Hardy, my father's "academic grandfather".
• Signatures of some Royal patrons: Victoria, Edward VII and Elizabeth II

Photos from Glover-Fest, April 2006

Some more photos from GloverFest, April 2006, Cambridge, UK

• DGKF: John Doyle, Keith Glover, Pramod Khargonekar and Bruce Francis. DGKF
• Two of Keith's brothers HAVE HAIR! Here's one and here's another.
• Bruce and Jingwen Francis, Liz Glover image
• Peter Whittle and David Mayne image
• Keith Glover and Jan Willems image
• Jan Willems and Doke image
• John Doyle, Maria Csete and Pramod Khargonekar image
• Brian Anderson, Hidenori Kimura, Malcom Smith (partly visible) image
• Hidenori Kimura and Malcolm Smith image
• Keith and Liz Glover image
• Bruce and Jingwen Francis image
• Pramod Khargonekar image

Photos from Sagar-Fest 2017 for My 70th Birthday, September 2017

• Most of the speakers at the workshop. From Left to right: Brian Ingalls, Francesco Bullo, Kirsten Morris, Reza Moheimani, Mark Spong, Andrew Heunis, Richard Braatz, Steve Yurkovich, Michel Gevers, Yutaka Yamamoto, Keith Glover, Frank Doyle, Richard Murray, Pradeep Misra, Murat Arcak, Brian Anderson, Stephen Boyd, M. Vidyasagar, Munther Dahleh, Pramod Khargonekar, Elena Valcher, Rodolphe Sepulchre, Frank Allgower, Toshiharu Sugie, Eduardo Sontag, Soura Dasgupta, Shinji Hara, and Malcolm Smith. Not included in the photo are: Mehmet Eren Ahsen, Domitilla del Vecchio, P. R. Kumar, Vince Poor, Allen Tannenbaum, and Tryphon Georgiou image
• My five Ph.D. students at UT Dallas: From left to right: Burook Misganaw, Mahsa Lotfi, Mehmet Eren Ahsen, Niharika Challapalli, and Nitin Singh. image
• The Chief Guest at the Workshop Banquet: No, I don't mean me! image
• Shakunthala and Pramod Khargonekar image
• A larger collection of photos from the workshop can be found here

Photos of Myself

• Receiving the DRDO Scientist of the Year Award in September 1997 from the then Prime Minister of India, I. K. Gujral. My then boss and later President of India Dr. Abdul Kalam can also be seen, and the then Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav can be partly seen in the photo. image
• Some photos from December 2008, when I received the IEEE Control Systems Award.
  Receiving the IEEE Control Systems Award from IEEE President John Vig in December 2008. image
  Pontificating and prognosticating during my acceptance speech; my fifteen minutes of fame had shrunk to eight minutes due to inflation. image