Suhada Jayasuriya, an University Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics at Drexel University, died unexpectedly on July 12, 2014. He was recognized as an national and international leader in the field of dynamic systems and control, and published over 200 technical articles on topics related to control systems, robust control, cooperative control, and signal processing. He had an exceptional talent to apply mathematical tools to engineering problems. His work on Qualitative Feedback Theory (QFT) for the design of robust control systems is well known. He has addressed a number of issues related to stability and performance of QFT designs.
Professor Jayasuriya received his B.A. from the University of Sri Lanka in 1977 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Wayne State University in 1980 and 1982 all in Mechanical Engineering. He served as an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University from 1983 to 1987 and in 1987 he joined the Mechanical Engineering Department of Texas A&M as an Associate Professor, where he was the Kotzebue Endowed Professor of Mechanical Engineering (1994–2010) and Head of the Department (1997–2001). He served as the Director of the Control Systems Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2007 to 2010. Then, he was a Distinguished Professor and Chair of Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF) from January 2011 to August 2013. In the fall of 2013, he joined Drexel University as an University Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics.
Dr. Jayasuriya was a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He took a series of leadership positions in the Dynamic Systems and Control (DSC) Division of ASME: Member (1994–2004) and Chair (2002–2003) of Executive Committee, Member of Honors Committee (1993–1998), Member (2003–2007) and Chair (2006–2007) of Advisory Committee, and Chair of Committee to study and recommend future directions in Dynamic Systems and Control (2008). He was Editor-in-Chief of the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control (December 2003–January 2009). He also took leadership roles of American Automatic Control Council serving as Program Chair of 2000 American Control Conference (ACC), General Chair of 2005 ACC, and ASME Director of the Council (2007–2009).
The value of Professor Jayasuriya's work and his leadership has been recognized in many ways. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has awarded him the Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in mechanical engineering within 10–20 yrs following graduation. The DSC Division bestowed upon him the Henry M. Paynter Outstanding Research Investigator Award and the Michael J. Rabins Leadership Award. He has also received the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Wayne State University.
He is survived by his wife Rasika, sons Ruvin and Nilan, and daughter Sashinie.
