Professor Leonard D. Berkovitz was honored at Purdue June 17-18, 1994 with a conference organized by two of his former students: Dr. William J. Browning, President, Applied Mathematics, Inc., and Dr. H. Thomas Banks, Drexel Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Center for Research in Scientific Computation at North Carolina State University. The purpose of the conference was to survey, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, Professor Berkovitz's work in differential games, control theory, and variational problems. Colleagues and former students attended lectures on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Family members and friends joined conference participants for a banquet held Friday evening.
For over forty years, Professor Berkovitz has made significant research contributions to the mathematical theory of optimal control and differential games. He has been both an industrial mathematician and a teacher of mathematics. After serving as an Army Air Corps weather officer from 1944-46, he resumed his studies at the University of Chicago, receiving a doctorate in mathematics in 1951 under Antoni Zygmund. From 1952 to 1954, Berkovitz was a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology, where he conducted research in asymptotic expansions. He then went to work for the RAND Corporation (1954-62), a nonprofit organization that conducted studies to help the Air Force make strategic policy decisions. As a technical observer of Air Force tactical exercises, he helped introduce the novel idea (now common practice) of using simulation methods for determining the outcome of tactical engagements.
Berkovitz joined the Purdue faculty as Professor of Mathematics in 1962. Eleven students have obtained Ph.D.'s under his supervision, and he has provided strong leadership in the Mathematics Department, serving as Head (1975-80), Acting Head (1989-90), and chairman of numerous departmental committees. He has served on School and University committees and was for many years a member of the Purdue University Press Editorial Committee. Professor Berkovitz has also contributed to the mathematical community at-large as editor of various professional journals.