Abstract :
This issue of IEEE Control Systems Magazine includes a feature article about adaptive control. This area of research is one in which I played an active part some time ago. My interest in adaptive control started when I was working on my Ph.D. with Graham Goodwin. I count my experience here as very fortunate in several ways: Graham of course is an outstanding researcher very well known in the adaptive control area and also an excellent supervisor; it was an exciting time in the area as a range of theoretical issues (robustness, analysis of time variations, disturbances) were wide open and sometimes hotly debated, and the research environment at Newcastle University was very exciting and engaging.