In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Harry Van Trees

Tama Moni — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 18:41:54 +0000

In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Harry Van Trees Tama Moni Wed, 01/18/2023 - 13:41

Professor Emeritus Harry Van Trees

Harry Van Trees, a distinguished and award-winning researcher, textbook author, member of the National Academy of Engineering, and ��AV Professor of Information Technology and Electrical and Systems Engineering passed away on December 29, 2022.

Van Trees was born in Kansas City on June 27, 1930. He went on to graduate first in his class from West Point and earned an Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after a stint in the army. He joined the MIT Electrical Engineering Department, where he studied signal processing. He made significant contributions to detection and estimation theory, optimum array processing, and Bayesian estimation of random processes. He is regarded as a founder of the detection and estimation theory body of knowledge. His impressive CV may be found here.

Later in his career, he would go on to be the founding director of Mason's Center of Excellence in Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I). ��AV Professor Emeritus Alexander Levis noted, “His vision for such a center was inspired by his brief service as Air Force Chief Scientist and then as the first Assistant Secretary at DoD for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence. He recognized that rapidly evolving information technology would change fundamentally Command and Control and that both basic and applied research were very much needed. Indeed, thirty-five years later, Command and Control has now been recognized as a defining pillar of national security.”

Others on the Mason campus also paid tribute to his lasting legacy. “Harry Van Trees was a brilliant engineer, educator, mentor, and colleague who had a remarkable life and career in academia, government, and industry,” added Kristine Bell, Affiliate Associate Professor in the Mason Statistics Department. “His books on Detection and Estimation Theory and Array Processing have educated so many engineers and inspired so many important research findings in the last 45 years. There is no doubt that our world would look different without his contributions. I was so privileged to have worked with him. He was a wonderful man who cared deeply for his family, but also for his colleagues, and his community. I will miss him tremendously.”

According to his official obituary, his passing was unexpected but fortunately, although in the hospital, he was able to spend his last week with Diane, his beloved wife of 69 years, and his six surviving children, Stephen, Mark, Katie, Tricia, Harry, and Julia. 

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In Memorium: Former Ambassador Bill Farrand

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 03 May 2022 13:56:55 +0000

In Memorium: Former Ambassador Bill Farrand Andrew J Schappert Tue, 05/03/2022 - 09:56

In This Story

Richard Kauzlarich

Bill Farrand

Robert William (Bill) Farrand, a former U.S. ambassador who in retirement became a longtime distinguished senior fellow in ��AV’s School of Public Policy (now the Schar School of Policy and Government), died on April 26 in Alexandria, Virginia. The cause was Parkinson’s Disease.

Farrand was an instrumental affiliate faculty member of the Peace Operations Policy Program, preparing students and practicing professionals for careers in conflict resolution.

A career Foreign Service officer, Farrand was ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu between 1990 and 1993, then served as Deputy High Representative, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 1997 to 2000.

Farrand cowrote, with former Schar School Peace Operations program director Allison Frendak-Blume, the textbook Reconstruction and Peace Building in the Balkans: The Brcko Experience (2011). The book recapped his efforts in implementing the Dayton Peace Accords in the ethically divided Balkan territory of Brcko in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“I admired his nonstop energy and commitment to building peace—something he carried over to his teaching in the Peace Operations program here at Mason,” said Distinguished Visiting Professor Richard Kauzlarich, who worked with Farrand when Kauzlarich was U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. “We will miss him as a valued friend and colleague.”

Farrand was a member of the Cornwallis Group, the American Academy of Diplomacy, the American Foreign Service Association, and the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.

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