| Citation | After getting a first class degree in electrical engineering at Glasgow, Alistair MacFarlane spent five years on electronic research at Metropolitan-Vickers. He then became a lecturer in Electrical Engineering at Queen Mary College, London where he started research on network theory and linear feedback circuits later extending this to the state space evaluation of non-linear networks. He was appointed Professor of Control Engineering at UMIST in 1969 and turned his attention to the design of multivariable control systems developing a brilliant and highly original generalisation of the circle method for multivariable regulator design. More recently his work on the analysis of non-linear networks and control systems has been acclaimed as of the very highest quality by most control engineers and theorists throughout the world and has resulted in his being elected Vice-chairman of the Theory Committee of the International Federation of Automatic Control. |