Tzyh Jong Tarn is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering and the Director of the Center for Robotics and Automation at Washington University. He also is the director of the Center for Quantum Information Science and Technology at Tsinghua University, Beijing and the distinguished chair professor in the Department of Physics at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. An active member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Dr. Tarn served as the President of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, 1992-1993, the Director of the IEEE Division X (Systems and Control), 1995-1996, and a member of the IEEE Board of Directors, 1995-1996.
He is the first recipient of the Nakamura Prize at the 10th Anniversary of IROS in Grenoble, France, 1997, the recipient of the prestigious Joseph F. Engelberger Award of the Robotic Industries Association in 1999, the Auto Soft Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. He also is the recipient of Pioneer in Robotics and Automation Award in 2003, and the George Saridis Leadership Award in 2009, both from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. This year he was selected as a recipient of the Einstein Chair Professor Award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was featured in the Special Report on Engineering of the 1998 Best Graduate School issue of U.S. News and World Report and his recent research accomplishments were reported in the Washington Times, the Financial Times (London), Le Monde (Paris), and the Chicago Sun-Times. Dr. Tarn is an IEEE Fellow and an IFAC Fellow.