Eugene Feinberg, PhD

STONY BROOK, NY, May 30, 2012 – Eugene Feinberg, PhD, Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at Stony Brook University, has been appointed to the rank of Distinguished Professorship by the State University of New York Board of Trustees as recommended by campus colleagues and SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. The rank of Distinguished Professor is the University’s highest faculty designation.

“I am humbled and thankful to my colleagues at the department, college, and university for their recognition of my work, said Professor Feinberg. “I am very lucky that I have met many wonderful people in my life.  During the sophomore year, I met two remarkable professors, Elena Wentzell and Alexander Yushkevich, who influenced my future studies,” he said. “Applied probability in general and the theory of Markov Decision Processes in particular provide tremendous opportunities for fundamental and applied research,” added Feinberg. “I am very grateful to four generations of my family for their support, advice and sacrifice.”

“Eugene Feinberg is a distinguished scholar who, for the past 30 years, has been the leading theoretician in the study of Markov decision processes,” said Dennis N. Assanis, Stony Brook University’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. “In addition to Dr. Feinberg’s talent and recognized status as the leading expert in this area, he has applied his theoretical advances to finding solutions to solve practical problems.”

Nationally and internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading scientists in the field of operations research and its applications, Dr. Feinberg’s major areas of expertise are applied probability, operations research, statistics, and their applications. One of the areas of applications he is currently working on is the development of control algorithms for a new generation of electric power systems called Smart Grids. He is Stony Brook’s principle investigator of the Long Island Smart Energy Corridor, a $25 million smart grid demonstration project awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy to the Long Island Power Authority and two SUNY campuses (Stony Brook University and Farmingdale State College).

“The epitomic example is his work with the Long Island Power Authority in helping to develop smart electric grids - essentially, an electric power delivery network with sufficient embedded sensors plus an optimal control strategy that enables power managers to successfully handle electric load forecasting,” said Provost Assanis. “Dr. Feinberg’s groundbreaking work has appeared in over 130 articles in journals and conference proceedings; he has served as an NSF panelist for grant reviews, and was elected as a fellow to the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS). As Provost, I am proud that SUNY has honored this brilliant researcher, Dr. Eugene Feinberg, whose work helps to find fundamental solutions to challenging energy problems.”

Additionally, Dr. Feinberg holds one patent and has published a book, “Handbook of Markov Decision Processes: Methods and Algorithms.” He has served on journal editorships and on program committees for conferences. He is the recipient of the Industrial Associates Award from Northrop Grumman; the IEEE Charles Hirsch Award; and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the National Technical University of Ukraine.

Dr. Feinberg received an MS in Applied Mathematics from Moscow Institute of Transport Engineering in Russia, and a PhD in Mathematics with a concentration in Probability Theory and Statistics from Vilnius University in Lithuania. He has held visiting appointments at Yale University and MIT.

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