Professor Irena Lasiecka, a graduate of the University of Warsaw (UW) received the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award, an annual distinction awarded by the American Automatic Control Council.

The Richard E. Bellman Prize is awarded to outstanding scientists who have significant research achievements in the field of control theory. It is considered the highest award of its kind for scientists from scientific institutions in the USA.

Professor Lasiecka is a mathematician specializing in control theory, differential equations and applied mathematics. She is a graduate of the University of Warsaw, where she wrote her PhD dissertation in the applied mathematics. In 2012, the President of the Republic of Poland gave her the title of professor.

She developed her scientific career first at the Institute of System Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and then at American universities.