Eberhardt Rechtin was an American systems engineer and respected authority in aerospace

Aerospace

Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...

 systems and systems architecture

Systems architecture

A system architecture or systems architecture is the conceptual model that defines the structure, behavior, and more views of a system.An architecture description is a formal description and representation of a system, organized in a way that supports reasoning about the structure of the system...

.

Biography

Rechtin was born in 1926, and received both his BS

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 (1946) and PhD

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 (1950) degrees from Caltech.

He worked at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...

 from 1948-1967, holding, among other positions, that of chief architect and director of NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's Deep Space Network

Deep Space Network

The Deep Space Network, or DSN, is a world-wide network of large antennas and communication facilities that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions. It also performs radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe, and supports selected...

. He became the Director of DARPA in 1967, and stayed in the United States Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

 as Assistant Secretary for Telecommunications. He was president and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation

The Aerospace Corporation

The Aerospace Corporation is a private, non-profit corporation headquartered in El Segundo, California that has operated a Federally Funded Research and Development Center for the United States Air Force since 1960...

 from 1977-1987. In 1987, he left Aerospace to found the systems architecture graduate program at the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

, from which he retired.

Rechtin was member of the National Academy of Engineering

National Academy of Engineering

The National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...

. the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...

 (AIAA), the International Academy of Astronautics

International Academy of Astronautics

The International Academy of Astronautics is an international community of experts committed to expanding the frontiers of space. It is a non-governmental organisation established in Stockholm on August 16, 1960....

 and the Tau Beta Pi

Tau Beta Pi

The Tau Beta Pi Association is the oldest engineering honor society in the United States and the second oldest collegiate honor society in America. It honors engineering students who have shown a history of academic achievement as well as a commitment to personal and professional integrity...

He received a number of awards from the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal

IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal

The IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal is an award honoring "exceptional contributions to the advancement of communications sciences and engineering" in the field of telecommunications...

, the Distinguished Public Service Award (DoD), the Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement (NASA), the Robert H Goddard Award (AIAA), the Distinguished Alumni Award (Caltech), the Pioneer Award

Pioneer Award

Pioneer Award may refer to:*EFF Pioneer Award presented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation*SFRA Pioneer Award presented by the Science Fiction Research Association*INCOSE Pioneer Award presented by the International Council on Systems Engineering...

 (International Council on Systems Engineering) to the C&C Prize (NEC).

Publications

• 1991, Systems Architecting, Creating and Building Complex Systems, Prentice-Hall
• 1997, The Art of Systems Architecting, with Mark W. Maier, CRC Press LLC
• 2000, The Art of Systems Architecting, Second Edition, with Mark W. Maier, CRC Press LLC.

External links

• BEACON Historical Photo of the Month - May 2006 - A tribute to Dr. Rechtin from the JPL site.
• "Eberhardt Rechtin, 80, Space-Signals Leader, Is Dead", NYTimes obituary, April 21, 2006.
• Eberhardt Rechtin Oral History - Eberhardt Rechtin, Electrical Engineer, an oral history conducted in 1995 by Frederik Nebeker, IEEE History Center, Rutgers University
  Rutgers University
  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
  
  , New Brunswick, NJ, USA.