Arjan J. van der Schaft (born 1955) is a full professor of systems and control theory at Johann Bernoulli Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Groningen. He is notable for his contributions to network modeling and control of complex systems as Port-Hamiltonian systems, passivity-based control, nonlinear H∞ control and hybrid systems. He is a Fellow of the (IEEE).
Arjan van der Schaft received the undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees in Mathematics from the University of Groningen, Netherlands, in 1979 and 1983, respectively. In 1982 he joined the Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Twente, Enschede, where he was appointed as a full professor in Mathematical Systems and Control Theory in 2000. In September 2005 he returned to Groningen as a full professor in Mathematics.
Van der Schaft has served as Associate Editor for Systems & Control Letters, Journal of Nonlinear Science, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, and the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. Currently he is Associate Editor for the Journal of Geometric Mechanics, and Editor-at-Large for the European Journal of Control.
System Theoretic Descriptions of Physical Systems (1984)
Variational and Hamiltonian Control Systems (1987, with P.E. Crouch)
Nonlinear Dynamical Control Systems (1990, with H. Nijmeijer)
L2-Gain and Passivity Techniques in Nonlinear Control (2000)
An Introduction to Hybrid Dynamical Systems (2000, with J.M. Schumacher)
Modeling and Control of Complex Physical Systems: the Port-Hamiltonian Approach (Geoplex Consortium, 2009)
Editorial boards and conference organization
Editor-at-Large for European Journal of Control (2001–),
Associate Editor for Journal of Geometric Mechanics (2008–),
Associate Editor for Systems & Control Letters (1988–1993, 2002–),
Associate Editor for ESAIM COCV (2006–2008),
Associate Editor for SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization (1999–2003),
Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (1993–1997),
Member Editorial Board Journal of Nonlinear Science and Nonlinear Science Today (1991–1995),
Member Editorial Board CWI Tracts (1996–2006).
Member Steering Committee of the Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems Symposium(Biennial International Conference).
Member Board of the Dutch Institute for Systems and Control (DISC)
Member of numerous Organizing and Program committees for conferences.
Co-organizer and was editor for the 2nd IFAC Workshop on Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Methods for Nonlinear Control, Seville,
April 2003NCN Workshop Stability and Stabilization of Nonlinear Systems, Ghent, April 1999
4th IFAC Nonlinear Control Systems Design Symposium, Enschede, July 1998.
Co-organizer the 21st edition of the symposium Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS) at the University of Groningen in 2014.
Honors and awards
Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers since 2002.
The paper “A.J. van der Schaft, L2-gain analysis of nonlinear systems and nonlinear state feedback H∞ control, TAC. AC-37, pp. 770–784, 1992” was the Dutch research paper in international scientific journals within the Technical Sciences that obtained the largest number of citations during the evaluation period 1994–1998.
Invited semi-plenary speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians, Madrid, 22–30 August 2006: From networks models to geometry: a new view on Hamiltonian systems.
SICE Takeda Best Paper Prize 2008 for "An approximation method for the stabilizing solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation for integrable systems", a Hamiltonian perturbation approach’, Transactions of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE), 43, pp. 572–580, 2007.
