Dimitri Bertsekas PhD ’71, the Jerry McAfee (1940) Emeritus Professor in Engineering within the Division of Electrical Engineering and Pc Science (EECS), a principal investigator within the Laboratory for Info and Choice Programs (LIDS), and the Fulton Professor of Computational Choice Making at Arizona State College, died on June 3 at his dwelling in Belmont, Massachusetts. He was 83 years previous. 

Over the course of his profession, Bertsekas’ analysis spanned, and had a definitive affect upon, a number of fields, together with optimization, management, large-scale computation, reinforcement studying, and synthetic intelligence. He served as a advisor to numerous personal corporations; an editor for a number of scientific journals; the founding father of a publishing firm, Athena Scientific; and chief scientific advisor of Bayforest Applied sciences, a London-based quantitative funding firm. Nevertheless, his most lasting impression could have come by his prolific authorship and co-authorship of over 20 extremely influential books, monographs, and textbooks, and thru his huge community of scholars, mentees, buddies, and collaborators.

Bertsekas earned his undergraduate diploma on the Nationwide Technical College of Athens, Greece, earlier than acquiring his MS in electrical engineering at George Washington College in 1969, and his PhD in system science at MIT in 1971. He started his college profession at Stanford College, the place he spent three years, and the College of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the place he spent 5 extra earlier than returning to MIT in 1979. He would stick with MIT’s Division of EECS till 2019, at which level he turned a full-time college member at Arizona State College at Tempe. Alongside the best way, Bertsekas taught, suggested, and mentored college students who would ultimately grow to be his colleagues in any respect 4 establishments. 

“Dimitri performed a defining position in my profession,” says Asu Ozdaglar, division head of EECS at MIT. “I made a decision to alter my analysis focus after taking his nonlinear optimization class. The conceptual readability and the mathematical rigor he has introduced to each matter, mixed together with his capability to attach concept to vital issues established a basis that has continued to tell my scholarly work within the years to observe.” One other former MIT scholar, Jinane Abounadi, now government director of the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program, nonetheless remembers Bertsekas’ tutelage as a spotlight of her time as a scholar at MIT: “I really feel so lucky to have had Dimitri as my professor and advisor. I had the chance to find out about optimization, dynamic programming, and neuro-dynamic programming from a real grasp.” 

A former scholar on the College of Illinois, Steven E. Shreve remembers being impressed by Bertsekas’ course on nonlinear optimization and asking if Bertsekas would think about turning into his PhD advisor. “Moderately than answering my query instantly, Dimitri gave me a preliminary draft of his manuscript, which ultimately turned his guide ‘Dynamic Programming and Stochastic Management,’ and requested me to proofread it,” remembers Shreve, now Orion Hoch College Professor Emeritus within the Division of Mathematical Sciences at Carnegie Mellon College. “From this manuscript, I discovered the speculation of dynamic programming and mastered many vital particular instances. Speaking with Dimitri as I learn, I obtained one-on-one instruction. When the guide lastly appeared, Dimitri generously acknowledged my participation, as if I had finished him a favor, somewhat than the opposite approach round.” The gambit was typical of Bertsekas’ understated method to mentorship; after the primary profitable collaboration, Bertsekas organized a analysis fellowship for Shreve and challenged him to unravel a elementary query in dynamic programming. “I wanted to be taught a great deal of set concept to even take into consideration the query he requested,” remembers Shreve, whose work on the issue was mixed with Bertsekas’ notes to create their co-authored guide “Stochastic Optimum Management: The Discrete Time Case.” 

“Working with Dimitri on [that book] is how I discovered to write down,” says Shreve. “I discovered from Dimitri that if you wish to be acknowledged to your analysis, you need to current it so others wish to learn it, and I discovered how to try this.” 

The readability and class of Bertsekas’ explanatory type would grow to be his academic hallmark. “Everybody acknowledged Dimitri’s nice skills as a author, however he went far past that, organizing total topics into one thing that was comprehensible and a well-organized totality,” says Robert Gallager, professor emeritus {of electrical} engineering at MIT, who co-authored a 1987 guide with Bertsekas entitled “Information Networks.” “The sphere was altering quickly then, with a factor-of-two lower each two years in computation prices, and with optical fiber on the horizon for transmission. Dimitri and I every understood solely elements of this discipline, with the remaining a fast-moving studying expertise. Dimitri was the best companion on this, capable of shortly translate arduous ideas into easy however correct explanations and capable of mix my information together with his into an comprehensible entire.” 

Bertsekas’ shut colleague in LIDS, Munther Dahleh, remembers, “what at all times struck me was that, by his writing, one may nearly hear Dimitri talking on to the reader. His instinct, readability of thought, and distinctive perspective come by superbly in his books. They mirror not solely his profound technical contributions, but additionally his ardour for instructing and his want to assist others perceive the topic at a deep degree. … Particularly, his joint guide with John Tsitsiklis on neuro-dynamic programming is a tour de power. It anticipated and helped outline most of the concepts that later turned central to reinforcement studying and approximate dynamic programming.” 

Tsitsiklis himself remembers the co-writing course of with Bertsekas fondly: “For Dimitri, analysis was a artistic type, combining craftsmanship and the creativity that we often name artwork.” The definition of artwork and its apply was a topic of nice fascination for Bertsekas, and one which he explored at size in his 2025 essay, “Academia, Artwork, and Life,” an try to meaningfully categorize artistic work into three broadly descriptive roles — technician, craftsman, and artist — and to discover the overlaps between the three kinds of apply. Past his clear and lucid writing, Bertsekas was identified for his sturdy graphic eye, a expertise which he put to good use not solely creating illustrations for all his textbooks, however in taking memorable and artistically impressed pictures of his worldwide travels. 

Longtime collaborator and good friend David Castañón, now a professor {of electrical} and pc engineering at Boston College, remembers Bertsekas as a real Renaissance man who drew inspiration from numerous sources: “Dimitri had an insatiable curiosity for algorithmic concepts, each concept and apply. Many of those concepts had been impressed by new applied sciences (parallel computer systems, reinforcement studying, chess-playing algorithms) … Every time we met, Dimitri would introduce new ideas of curiosity; we might work out theoretical particulars, design and conduct numerical experiments, and generate outcomes. Then, Dimitri’s inventive skills would take over: designing graphics as an example ideas, typesetting textual content and figures for the papers to be accomplished. He had a uncommon present for producing concise explanations of advanced ideas. These skills led to his publishing firm Athena Scientific, the place Dimitri and his coauthors generated elegant pedagogical volumes with broad attraction.” Tsitsiklis agrees, noting, “for Dimitri, [research] was about discovering that means, to uncover the ‘proper’ technique to view a topic, enrich it, and convey it in a crystal-clear method by his prolific writings.” 

Most of the 20-plus books both authored or co-authored by Bertsekas had been adopted to be used as textbooks at MIT in topics together with information networks, nonlinear programming, dynamic programming, community optimization, parallel and distributed computation, neuro-dynamic programming, convex evaluation and optimization, chance, and reinforcement studying. Stephen Boyd, Samsung Professor within the College of Engineering at Stanford, testifies to the good impression of Bertsekas’ collected works: “generations of researchers in optimization, management, and plenty of associated areas discovered these subjects from Dimitri’s exquisitely clear and superbly written textual content books. I used to be one in every of them; certainly, I went into these fields in no small half due to Dimitri’s books, and his affect has been with me the entire time.”

That affect may be measured by the sheer variety of awards and honors Bertsekas accrued over the course of his profession, together with the INFORMS 1997 Prize for Analysis Excellence within the Interface Between Operations Analysis and Pc Science for Neuro-Dynamic Programming, the 2001 ACC John R. Ragazzini Schooling Award, the 2009 INFORMS Expository Writing Award, the 2014 ACC Richard E. Bellman Management Heritage Award for “contributions to the foundations of deterministic and stochastic optimization-based strategies in techniques and management,” the 2014 Khachiyan Prize for Life-Time Accomplishments in Optimization, the SIAM/MOS 2015 George B. Dantzig Prize, and the 2022 IEEE Management Programs Award. Collectively together with his coauthor John Tsitsiklis, he was awarded the 2018 INFORMS John von Neumann Concept Prize for the contributions of the analysis monographs “Parallel and Distributed Computation” and “Neuro-Dynamic Programming.” In 2001, Bertsekas was elected to the U.S. Nationwide Academy of Engineering for “pioneering contributions to elementary analysis, apply and training of optimization/management concept.”

Nevertheless, a extra private measure of Bertsekas’ impression may be taken by the heat and affection with which his buddies, co-workers, and former college students uniformly bear in mind him. Co-author John Tsitsiklis wrote, “I used to be most lucky to be one in every of his apprentices, and to have lived his heat and friendship.” His former scholar at MIT, Angelia Nedich, later turned Bertsekas’ colleague at Arizona State College. She remembers: “Dimitri was an distinctive thoughts, a gifted soul that shed mild for us seekers, however on the similar time he was very humble as he loved easy moments of life, a sip of fine espresso, a chew of flavorful meals, or a glass of spicy margarita on our street journeys in Southwest. That’s how I like to recollect him.”

Former scholar Benjamin Van Roy, now a professor at Stanford, wrote in regards to the transformation of Bertsekas from authority determine to good friend (and the topic of pleasant teasing). “I recall the intimidating feedback of extra senior PhD college students as I started my very own PhD journey in LIDS. Some referred to Dimitri as an “immortal.” One other remark I recall fondly — and infrequently reminded Dimitri about — was: “Professor Bertsekas is a very good-looking man!” Their bond continued lengthy after Van Roy’s commencement. “Dimitri was a treasure to humanity: one of many nice students of our time, a Renaissance man, and an exceptional position mannequin. I used to be privileged to be among the many many he mentored, and much more privileged to rely him as a longtime good friend.” Yuchao Li, a postdoc mentored by Bertsekas at Arizona State College, remembers his mentor as an nearly inexhaustible supply of each inspiration and help: “For me, Professor Bertsekas was like a loving father, stuffed with infinite knowledge. … He appeared to know all the pieces, but he remained deeply humble and open-minded. He was at all times keen to assist, even on the slightest signal of problem in my life. He instilled in me an enduring religion in the perfect qualities of human beings, and I’ll try to hold that religion ahead.”

Bertsekas was preceded in dying by his son Costas. He’s survived by his spouse Joanna Bertsekas (née Palashas); his son Telis Bertsekas and his spouse Wendy Bertsekas; and three grandchildren, Melina, Alexandros, and Leonidas.