John S. Baras

John S. Baras is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, holding joint appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research (ISR). He also serves as the Lockheed Martin Chair in Systems Engineering and directs the Maryland Hybrid Networks Center (HyNet). His roles include Founding Director of ISR (1985–1991) and Director of HyNet since 1992.

Baras earned his B.S. from the National Technical University of Athens and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University. His research focuses on wireless networks, control systems, robotics, and cyber-physical systems. He is a Fellow of multiple prestigious organizations, including IEEE, SIAM, and AAAS, and has received numerous awards for his contributions to science and engineering.

His research interests span networked control systems, autonomous systems, and stochastic systems. Notable contributions include foundational work on satellite and hybrid communication networks, model-based systems engineering, and robotic motion planning. He has advised 42 Ph.D. and 70 M.S. students.

Baras has authored over 450 papers and three patents, with recent work addressing risk-sensitive reinforcement learning, network slicing, and autonomous vehicle coordination. His labs and teams, including HyNet, focus on industry-academic collaboration in next-generation communication and control systems.