Behcet Acikmese: Faculty Home Page

Biography

Behçet Açıkmeşe is a Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Behçet Açıkmeşe received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University. He was a senior technologist at JPL and a lecturer at Caltech. At JPL, he developed control algorithms for planetary landing,
spacecraft formation flying, and asteroid and comet sample return missions. He developed the "flyaway" control algorithms in the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, and the reaction control system algorithms for the NASA SMAP mission. Dr. Acikmese invented a novel planetary landing guidance algorithm (G-FOLD) that was flight-tested by JPL, which is the first demonstration of a real-time optimization algorithm for autonomous rocket guidance and control.

He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the IEEE Technical Excellence in Aerospace Controls Award, multiple Best Paper Awards from IEEE CSM, Scitech, Asian Journal of Control, and numerous NASA Achievement Awards for his contributions to NASA missions and new technology development. He is a Fellow of AIAA and IEEE.