Behçet Açıkmeşe

Timeline

1. 1992–2002

   Engineering degrees in Turkey and Indiana

   He earns a civil engineering bachelor’s degree at Middle East Technical University in Turkey in 1992 and a mechanical engineering master’s degree at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis in 1996. In 2002, he completes a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University.

2. 2003–2012

   Spacecraft control at JPL

   After a visiting assistant professorship in aerospace engineering at Purdue University, he works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 2003 to 2012. As a technologist and senior member of the Guidance and Control Analysis Group, he develops algorithms for spacecraft formation flying and planetary landing. His guidance and control algorithms operate during the fly-away phase of Curiosity’s landing in August 2012.

3. 2012

   Assistant professor in Austin

   In 2012, he joins the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he serves as an assistant professor.

4. By 2013

   Rocket guidance in flight

   By October 2013, his research group demonstrates a real-time trajectory optimization method for planetary landing in flight experiments on a NASA test rocket.

5. 2015

   An NSF CAREER Award

   In 2015, he receives an NSF CAREER Award for “Real-time Convex Optimization for High-Performance Control of Autonomous Systems.” The project develops mathematical and computational methods for autonomous decision-making and control. He also works with JPL collaborators on flight tests of his G-FOLD planetary landing guidance algorithm.

6. 2016

   Successive convexification for autonomous vehicles

   With Yuanqi Mao and Michael Szmuk, he coauthors “Successive Convexification of Non-Convex Optimal Control Problems and Its Convergence Properties” in 2016. The method repeatedly linearizes nonlinear dynamics and solves convex subproblems, with applications to real-time path planning for autonomous vehicles.

7. May 2019

   Autonomous systems at Washington

   By May 2019, he serves on the faculty of the University of Washington’s William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, with an adjunct appointment in Electrical Engineering. His work includes Markov chain methods with safety constraints for decentralized coordination and control of spacecraft swarms.

8. 2019–2023

   IEEE and AIAA honours

   He receives the IEEE Control Systems Society’s Award for Technical Excellence in Aerospace Control in 2019. In 2022, he becomes an IEEE Fellow for contributions to optimization-based nonlinear control and planetary landing systems. He is elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2023.

9. Since 2026

   Chancellor’s Professor at Berkeley

   In 2026, he joins UC Berkeley as a Chancellor’s Professor, with appointments in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and Mechanical Engineering. He directs the Autonomous Controls Lab and studies real-time trajectory planning, autonomous aerospace systems, and coordination and control of large-scale multi-agent systems.