Václav E. Beneš

Who is Václav E. Beneš?

Václav Edvard "Vic" Beneš is a Czech-American mathematician, known for his contributions to the theory of stochastic processes, queueing theory and control theory, as well as the design of telecommunications switches.

He studied under John Kemeny and gained a doctorate in mathematics at Princeton University on a treatise on Mathematical logic.

He then worked for Bell Labs until 1987, contributing to Kalman filter theory as well as the Beneš network, a permutation network of the Clos network type. In the 1980s he held a position at Columbia University as well. Since 1987 he continued to publish independently.

He was elected IEEE Fellow for "contributions to the structure of telephone connecting networks, stochastic control, and nonlinear filtering". The Benesfest was celebrated at Columbia University to honor his 70th birthday. He resides in Millburn, New Jersey where he has been a long-time mountain climber member of the American Alpine Club, and currently heads the local historical society.