Pre-career education:
I graduated with honors (cum laude) from LSU in Electrical Engineering and was awarded a full National Science Foundation Fellowship at the University of Southern California. After a year at USC to earn the MS degree, I entered the PhD program studying mathematical systems theory (automatic control systems) with a minor in computer science. I studied under Professor Leonard Silverman, who was active in academic publications in international journals, such as the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.
I completed the requirements by the summer of 1972, took a job as Assistant Professor of Computer Science at LSU starting in August 1972, and was formally awarded the degree in January of 1973.
