PREFACE suggestions to me, preferably by electronic mail, at kemin@ee. Isu. edu I am also planning to put any corrections, modifications, and extensions on the Internet so that they can be obtained either from the following anonymous ftp ftp gate. ee. lsu. edu cd pub/kemin/books/ essentials or from the author's home page http://kilo.ee.lsuedu/kemin/books/essentials/ This book would not be possible without the work done jointly for the previous book with Professor John C. Doyle and Professor Keith Glover. I thank them for their influence on my research and on this book. Their serious attitudes toward scientific research have been reference models for me. I am especially grateful to John for having me as a research fellow in Caltech, where I had two very enjoyable years and had opportunities to catch a glimpse of his"BIG PICTURE of control I want to thank my editor from Prentice Hall, Tom Robbins, who originally proposed he idea for this book and has been a constant source of support for me while writing it Without his support and encouragement, this project would have been a difficult one It has been my great pleasure to work with him. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Bruce A. Francis for giving me many helpful comments and suggestions on this book. Professor Francis has also kindly provided many exercises in the book. I am also grateful to Professor Kang-Zhi liu and Professor Zheng-Hua Luo, who have made many useful comments and suggestions I want to thank Professor Glen Vinnicombe for his generous help in the preparation of Chapters 16 and 17. Special thanks go to Professor Jianqing Mao for providing me the opportunity to present much of this material in a series of lectures at Beijing University of aeronautics and astronautics in the summer of 1996 In addition, I would like to thank all those who have helped in many ways in making this book possible, especially Professor Pramod P Khargonekar, Professor Andre Tit Professor Andrew Packard, Professor Jie Chen, Professor Jakob Stoustrup, Professor Hans Henrik Niemann, Professor Malcolm Smith, Professor Tryphon Georgiou, Profes- sor Tongwen Chen, Professor Hitay Ozbay, Professor Gary Balas, Professor Carolyn Beck, Professor Dennis S Bernstein, Professor Mohamed Darouach, Dr. Bobby Boden- heimer, Professor Guoxiang Gu, Dr. Weimin Lu, Dr. John Morris, Dr. Matt Newlin Professor Li Qiu, Professor Hector P. Rotstein, Professor Andrew Teel, Professor Ja- gannathan Ramanujam, Dr. Linda G. Bushnell, Xiang Chen, Greg Salomon, Pablo A Parrilo, and many other people for supporting my research: National Air Force of scientific Research. and the board of regents in the state of louisiana nally, I would like to thank my wife, Jing, and my son, Eric, for their generous support, understanding, and patience during the writing of this book Kemin zhouviii PREFACE suggestions to me, preferably by electronic mail, at kemin@ee.lsu.edu I am also planning to put any corrections, modifications, and extensions on the Internet so that they can be obtained either from the following anonymous ftp: ftp gate.ee.lsu.edu cd pub/kemin/books/essentials/ or from the author’s home page: http://kilo.ee.lsu.edu/kemin/books/essentials/ This book would not be possible without the work done jointly for the previous book with Professor John C. Doyle and Professor Keith Glover. I thank them for their influence on my research and on this book. Their serious attitudes toward scientific research have been reference models for me. I am especially grateful to John for having me as a research fellow in Caltech, where I had two very enjoyable years and had opportunities to catch a glimpse of his “BIG PICTURE” of control. I want to thank my editor from Prentice Hall, Tom Robbins, who originally proposed the idea for this book and has been a constant source of support for me while writing it. Without his support and encouragement, this project would have been a difficult one. It has been my great pleasure to work with him. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Bruce A. Francis for giving me many helpful comments and suggestions on this book. Professor Francis has also kindly provided many exercises in the book. I am also grateful to Professor Kang-Zhi Liu and Professor Zheng-Hua Luo, who have made many useful comments and suggestions. I want to thank Professor Glen Vinnicombe for his generous help in the preparation of Chapters 16 and 17. Special thanks go to Professor Jianqing Mao for providing me the opportunity to present much of this material in a series of lectures at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the summer of 1996. In addition, I would like to thank all those who have helped in many ways in making this book possible, especially Professor Pramod P. Khargonekar, Professor Andr´e Tits, Professor Andrew Packard, Professor Jie Chen, Professor Jakob Stoustrup, Professor Hans Henrik Niemann, Professor Malcolm Smith, Professor Tryphon Georgiou, Profes￾sor Tongwen Chen, Professor Hitay Ozbay, Professor Gary Balas, Professor Carolyn ¨ Beck, Professor Dennis S. Bernstein, Professor Mohamed Darouach, Dr. Bobby Boden￾heimer, Professor Guoxiang Gu, Dr. Weimin Lu, Dr. John Morris, Dr. Matt Newlin, Professor Li Qiu, Professor Hector P. Rotstein, Professor Andrew Teel, Professor Ja￾gannathan Ramanujam, Dr. Linda G. Bushnell, Xiang Chen, Greg Salomon, Pablo A. Parrilo, and many other people. I would also like to thank the following agencies for supporting my research: National Science Foundation, Army Research Office (ARO), Air Force of Scientific Research, and the Board of Regents in the State of Louisiana. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Jing, and my son, Eric, for their generous support, understanding, and patience during the writing of this book. Kemin Zhou