Joseph DiStefano III M.S. ’64, Ph.D. ’66

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Joseph joined the UCLA School of Engineering faculty in 1966, school of medicine faculty in 1982. He received a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1971, and was a senior Fullbright-Hays Scholar in Italy in 1979. At UCLA, he chairs the biomedical systems area of the scientific computing field, the cybernetics interdepartmental program, and is the director of the Biocybernetics Teaching and Experimental Laboratory.

Throughout his 36 years at UCLA, he has taught an average of four courses each year, plus a graduate seminar each year. Joe’s research led to a pioneering curriculum in the interdisciplinary filed of cybernetics at a time when the interplay between mathematics, engineering, biology, and medicine was far less understood than it is today. His textbook on the subject has been praised throughout the world and has been translated into eight languages.

UCLA’s undergraduates cybernetics major is perhaps the most rigorous intellectual degree program in the life sciences, but students in the program don’t just succeed – under Joe’s guidance, they excel.

Developing a curriculum for a fast-changing field like cybernetics is not a one-time project – Joe is constantly updating his teaching material. A true Renaissance man, he teaches not just science, bioengineering, and medicine, but has also taught at least one of his students how to keep the beat to Latin/Cuban music. He founded a Latin salsa band, the CyberSalsettes, for his students.