Richard D. (Dick) Klafter, one of the early leaders in the field of robotics and automation and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, was born on 5 August 1936 and died 11 November 2019. He received an undergraduate degree at MIT, two graduate degrees from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the City University of New York (1969).

Radhika Nagpal is the Fred Kavli Professor of Computer Science, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University.