Bernard P. Zeigler

Who is Bernard P. Zeigler?

Bernard P. Zeigler is an Canadian engineer, and emeritus professor at the University of Arizona, known for inventing Discrete Event System Specification in 1976.

Zeigler received his BA in engineering physics in 1962 from McGill University, his M.S.E.E. from MIT in 1964, and his PhD in computer and communication science in 1969 from the University of Michigan. He started his academic career in 1969 as associate professor at the University of Michigan. From 1975 to 1980 he was faculty member of the Weizman Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Back in the States in 1980 he was visiting for a year at the University of Michigan, and full professor at the Wayne State University in Detroit. And finally in 1985 he became professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona, and since its foundation in 2001 also Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Modeling and Simulation.

In 1995 Zeigler was awarded IEEE Fellow in recognition of his contributions to the theory of discrete event simulation, and in 2000 he received the McLeod Founder’s Award by the Society for Computer Simulation, also for his contributions to discrete event simulation.