Karl H. Johansson receives prestigious 2024 Hendrik W. Bode Lecture Prize

Digital Futures Director Karl Henrik Johansson has received the 2024 Hendrik W. Bode Lecture Prize. This award celebrates distinguished contributions to control systems science or engineering. Johansson is recognized for his “outstanding contributions to networked control with applications to transportation and automation systems.” The award was presented to him at the 63rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control Awards Ceremony on 18 December in Milan, Italy. It represents the highest distinction awarded by the IEEE Control Systems Society and is one of the most prestigious international scientific recognitions in the field of control science and engineering.

“Karl Henrik Johansson receiving the Bode Lecture Prize 2024 is a well-deserved recognition of his exceptional contributions to control science and engineering,” says Anders Söderholm, President of KTH Royal Institute of Technology. “His distinguished career is characterized not only by groundbreaking research but also by significant leadership at KTH. This award honors Karl Henrik’s dedication to advancing control systems for the greater benefit of society,” concludes Söderholm.

As part of the prize, Johansson delivered a lecture entitled Semper in motu: Transforming Mobility through Learning and Control at the conference. The talk explored the transformative potential of learning-enabled cyber-physical-human systems, with a focus on how connected vehicles, acting as mobile sensors and actuators, can revolutionize traffic prediction and management on an unprecedented scale. It covered research results achieved by Johansson’s PhD students, postdocs, colleagues, and industrial collaborators, driving advancements in AI and automation for transport systems.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the world’s largest technical professional organization, with more than 460,000 members. The Hendrik W. Bode Lecture Prize is one of the highest honors in control engineering, awarded by the IEEE Control Systems Society. It recognizes exceptional contributions to control systems science and engineering, with an emphasis on technical merit and societal impact.