Walter R. Evans

Walter R. Evans
Born	January 15, 1920
Died	July 10, 1999 (aged 79)
Residence	United States
Citizenship	American
Fields	Control theory
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles Washington University in St. Louis
Known for	Root locus
Notable awards	Rufus Oldenburger Medal (1987) Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award (1988)

Walter Richard Evans (January 15, 1920 – July 10, 1999) was a noted American control theorist and the inventor of the root locus method in 1948. He was the recipient of the 1987 American Society of Mechanical Engineers Rufus Oldenburger Medal^[1] and the 1988 AACC's Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award.^[2]

Biography

He was born on January 15, 1920, and received his B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in 1941 and his M.E. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1951.

Evans worked as an engineer at several companies, including General Electric, Rockwell International, and Ford Aeronautic Company.

He published a book named "Control System Dynamics" with McGraw-Hill in 1954.

He had four children. One of his children, Gregory Walter Evans, wrote an article about his father in the December 2004 issue of the IEEE Control Magazine.

Evans was taught to play chess by his grandmother, Eveline Allen Burgess, the American Women's Chess Champion from 1907 to 1920.^[3]

References

• Gregory Walter Evans, "Bringing root locus to the classroom: the story of Walter R. Evans and his textbook Control System Dynamics", IEEE Control Magazine, pp. 74–81, December 2004.

1. "Rufus Oldenburger Medal". American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Retrieved 2013-02-13.
2. "Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award". American Automatic Control Council. Retrieved 2013-02-10.
3. "In Memoriam Walter Richard Evans (15 January 1920 – 10 July 1999)" (PDF), ORBIT (General Electric), First Quarter 2000, retrieved 2011-04-21 Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Biography
• Memoriam
• Spirule