Farewell
Dado Banatao died in December at the age of 79. A visionary engineer and entrepreneur whose contributions fundamentally shaped modern computing, he invented two foundational technologies still embedded in nearly every personal computer today: the PC chipset and graphics acceleration architecture. He also founded and led multiple successful semiconductor companies and was a respected venture capitalist with a deep belief in technology’s potential to benefit society. A longtime supporter of the college, he was a key benefactor of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute. He also served on the Berkeley Engineering Advisory Board and as chair of the CITRIS Advisory Board.
James Kelly died in September at the age of 90. A professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering, he was a world-renowned pioneer in the field of seismic isolation and energy dissipation. He joined the faculty at UC Berkeley in 1965 and later developed the first energy-dissipating device used for the seismic protection of a structure. He also played an integral role in creating the “Yellow Book,” the first guidelines for the design of seismically isolated structures, which became the foundation for code provisions adopted worldwide. At Berkeley, he supervised and mentored numerous doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars, introduced the first course on seismic isolation and energy dissipation and published nearly 400 papers and four books. To honor his legacy, the Anti-Seismic Systems International Society created the James M. Kelly medal, which recognizes outstanding contributions in seismic isolation and seismic protective systems.
Beresford Parlett died in February at the age of 93. A professor emeritus of electrical engineering and computer sciences and of mathematics, he was both a pioneer in numerical analysis and a foundational figure in the history of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS). He joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1965 and served for nearly 30 years, playing a central role in the expansion of computer science on campus and the creation of the EECS department. Through his research, he made monumental contributions to numerical linear algebra, particularly the symmetric eigenvalue problem. He was a leader in the search for the “Holy Grail” of matrix eigenvalue computation, a quest that led to the development of the MRRR algorithm by his student, Inderjit Dhillon. His 1980 book, “The Symmetric Eigenvalue Problem,” remains a definitive text in the field, while his work continues to impact modern computing.
Juan Pestana died in September. He was a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering. In 1994, he joined the faculty at UC Berkeley, where he taught, mentored and inspired generations of geosystems students. During his more than 20-year tenure, he received the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award, the campus’s highest honor for teaching excellence. He also authored or coauthored more than 150 research publications and received many geotechnical engineering awards, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Arthur Casagrande Award, the ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize and the Shamsher Prakash Research Prize. In addition, he served as program manager for the National Science Foundation’s Geoenvironmental Engineering and GeoHazards Mitigation Program, as director of the UC Berkeley Pavement Research Center and as a member of the National Academies’ Committee on Geological and Geotechnical Engineering. Following his career at Berkeley, he worked as a senior principal at Geosyntec Consultants.
OTHER COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Donald Babbit (B.S.’57 CE)
Dino Ciarlo (M.S.’65 EECS)
Robin Dill (MEng’79 CE)
Leslie “Terry” Jackson (B.S.’57, M.S.’63 EECS)
Eugene Kozlowski (B.S.’56 Petroleum Engineering)
Donald McCown (B.S.’62, M.S.’65 EECS)
Richard Ose (B.S.’73 ME)
Robert Peck (B.S.’49 EECS)
Ronald Shimizu (B.S.’63 EECS)
Roger Whitlock (B.S.’61 ME)
Richard Winkler (B.S.’52 CE)