Hendrik Wade Bode

Hendrik Wade Bode
Born(1905-12-24)December 24, 1905
Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedJune 21, 1982(1982-06-21) (aged 76)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materOhio State University
Columbia University
Known forControl theory
Electronic engineering
Telecommunications
Bode filter
Bode plot
Bode gain-phase relation
Bode's sensitivity integral
AwardsRichard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award (1979)
Rufus Oldenburger Medal (1975)
President's Certificate of Merit
Edison Medal (1969)
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award (1960)
Scientific career
FieldsControl systems, physics, mathematics, telecommunications
InstitutionsOhio State University
Bell Laboratories
Harvard University

Hendrik Wade Bode (/ˈboʊdi/ BOH-dee, Dutch: [ˈboːdə];[1] December 24, 1905 – June 21, 1982)[1] was an American engineer, researcher, inventor, author and scientist, of Dutch ancestry. As a pioneer of modern control theory and electronic telecommunications he revolutionized both the content and methodology of his chosen fields of research. His synergy with Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, laid the foundations for the technological convergence of the Information Age.

He made important contributions to the design, guidance and control of anti-aircraft systems during World War II. He helped develop the automatic artillery weapons that defended London from the V-1 flying bombs during WWII. After the war, Bode along with his wartime rival Wernher von Braun, developer of the V-2 rocket, and, later, the father of the US space program, served as members of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor of NASA. During the Cold War, he contributed to the design and control of missiles and anti-ballistic missiles.[2]

He also made important contributions to control systems theory and mathematical tools for the analysis of stability of linear systems, inventing Bode plots, gain margin and phase margin.

Bode was one of the great engineering philosophers of his era.[3] Long respected in academic circles worldwide,[4][5] he is also widely known to modern engineering students mainly for developing the asymptotic magnitude and phase plot that bears his name, the Bode plot.

His research contributions in particular were not only multidimensional but also far reaching, extending as far as the U.S. space program.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ a b Van Valkenburg, M. E. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "In memoriam: Hendrik W. Bode (1905-1982)", IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. AC-29, No 3., March 1984, pp. 193–194. Quote: "Something should be said about his name. To his colleagues at Bell Laboratories and the generations of engineers that have followed, the pronunciation is boh-dee. The Bode family preferred that the original Dutch be used as boh-dah."
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Shearer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Memorial tributes By National Academy of Engineering p. 54
  4. ^ Biography in Spanish
  5. ^ "Biography in German from Technische Universität Berlin Institut für Luft und Raumfahrt (PDF) p.6" (PDF). Archived from the original on July 9, 2007. Retrieved January 7, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^ "Neve Yaakov Web Page Tribute". Archived from the original on November 23, 2007. Retrieved February 9, 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. ^ NASA Historical Website
  8. ^ Biographies of Aerospace officials and policy makers from NASA History Division