Rate My Professor John Truxal

John G. Truxal was a distinguished electrical engineer whose career at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, now the NYU Tandon School of Engineering at New York University, significantly advanced the field of Engineering. Joining the faculty in 1954, he became Professor and Head of the Electrical Engineering Department in 1957, serving until 1962. Under his leadership, research in systems and control flourished, culminating in the initiation of graduate degrees in Systems Engineering. Truxal was a key member of the Systems and Control Group from 1957 to 1972. His seminal book, Automatic Feedback Control System Synthesis (1955), drew faculty and students to the discipline. He contributed to adaptive control systems research, leading to the symposium and publication of Adaptive Control Systems, edited by E. Mishkin and L. Braun (1961). Under his guidance, the Electrical Engineering faculty published a series of textbooks that influenced undergraduate and graduate curricula nationwide.

Truxal earned a B.S. degree from Dartmouth College in 1944 and a D.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950, after serving as a Radar Officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He began his academic career at Purdue University in 1950, rising to Associate Professor by 1957. At Polytechnic, he advanced to Vice President for Educational Development, Dean of Engineering, and Provost before departing in 1972. Subsequently, he served as Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and later as Distinguished Teaching Professor, Emeritus. His awards include the IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal (1974) for pioneering engineering concepts in high schools and leadership in education; the Rufus Oldenburger Medal (1991); the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award (1991); the Frederick W. Lanchester Prize (1971); and honorary Doctor of Science from Purdue University (1965). A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of IEEE, ISA, and AAAS, Truxal mentored notable students who became faculty, including Peter Dorato and Joseph J. Bongiorno, Jr., leaving a lasting impact on control theory and engineering education.