M. A. L. Thathachar (1939–2017)

Professor Mandayam Ananthampillai Lakshmi Thathachar, an extraordinary teacher and researcher, passed away on 7 January 2017 at his home in Bengaluru.

Thathachar, fondly referred to as MALT by his students, spent most of his academic career at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. Over a timespan of nearly four decades, he initiated and nurtured research at IISc in the then emerging areas of adaptive control, pattern recognition and machine learning, which are areas of utmost importance in industry today. He had mentored a generation of researchers in these areas. Many of his students are currently senior professors in universities across India, USA and Canada. All of them cherish the time they spent working with him.