Elad Gilboa: I received my PhD degree in August 2014 under the guidance of Prof. Nehorai. Currently, I am working as a postdoc researcher at the Technion - Israel institute of Technology, in the machine learning group of Prof. Shie Mannor. Working in Prof. Nehorai's lab was a great experience and an opportunity to engage and initiate in multiple research topics and collaborations. Dr. Nehorai always encouraged us to explore new fields in order to get a broader perspective and bring together new ideas and methods in order to solve interesting problems. I feel that this freedom and creativity to think out side the box have better me as a researcher and helped preparing me to my current position. During my PhD I was also fortunate to have received the McDonnell Academy Scholarship. This unique opportunity was largely thanks to Prof. Nehorai recommendation and encouragement even before I joined his lab. In my experience, it is rare to see professors with such interest in their students. Dr. Nehorai always made sure to make the lab environment (in and outside the lab) welcoming and comfortable, and he was very approachable whenever we needed his help. Finally, working in a big lab allowed me to get to know and befriend with many interesting students from around the world and made it fun to come to lab in the mornings.

Elad Gilboa (10/23/2014). Email: egilboa@gmail.com

Peng Yang: I received my PhD degree under the guidance of Prof. Nehorai in May 2014. After that I started working at MasterCard as a data scientist. The five years at Washington University and four years in Prof. Nehorai's group were a great preparation for my career development. I personally benefit a lot from the unusual freedom in selecting courses and research topics provided by Prof. Nehorai. Being in a large lab and collaborating with labmates and internal/external researchers have greatly broadened my knowledge base and helped me in tackling various real-world problems at my current job. Prof. Nehorai also provided us many chances to guide study groups, lead undergraduate research projects, and present research work in international conference, all of which are very helpful in developing communication skills. I sincerely appreciate all the guidance and opportunities provided by Prof. Nehorai.

Peng Yang (10/01/2014). Email: yangpeng@go.wustl.edu

Xiaoxiao Xu: I obtained my Bachelor of Science degree from Fudan University in 2009, after which I joined Professor Nehorai's group to pursue a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering. I graduated in 2014, and am currently working as a senior engineer at Oracle. Professor Nehorai's group has developed many multidisciplinary research frontiers. From his connections, I have the opportunities to work with excellent colleagues in the School of Medicine. The collaborative research experiences during my PhD study is beneficial for me to expand my expertise toolkit. All the group members in Professor Nehorai;s lab are very productive and the atmosphere in the group has been very enjoyable. The size of the group is just right, and the group is very dynamic and collaborative. Senior students organize study groups to help new students to be better prepared for the more intensive research down the road. The group's emphasis on fundamentals turns out to be critical in the long run of research. In the group we also have ample opportunities to attend national and international conferences, which are important for expanding professional networks and refining communication skills. We are given a lot of freedom to pursue various research topics, and Professor Nehorai is always proactively offering advice, resources and opportunities. I enjoyed my PhD life in the group, and all the learning experiences are rewarding for many years to come.

Xiaoxiao Xu (10/03/2014). Email: xiaoxiaoyeyu0817@gmail.com

Phani Chavali: I received my PhD degree in September 2013. Since October 2013, I have been working as a predictive analytics scientist at Monsanto R/D. The time I spent at Prof. Nehorai's lab during my Ph.D provided me with a solid foundation in many aspects of academic research. In addition, the work I did covered a broad spectrum of interesting topics and it expanded my research interests. One of the best parts about working in Dr. Nehorai's lab is the freedom he gives us in exploring various solutions to a problem. Personally, this freedom helped me in using ideas from various fields to address the classical tracking problems. During my fourth and fifth year, I also had a chance to lead some undergraduate research projects, and study groups. I learnt a lot from both these experiences.

In addition, we always had a very friendly environment in the lab, and I made really good friends. The seniors very always very helpful. We had lab gatherings regularly to celebrate birthdays, and we had get-togethers for various other occasions. I always enjoyed the conversations we had during these gatherings.

Prof. Nehorai has been a great mentor to me and provided me with great advice, both professional and personal. I look forward to interacting with him and for his advice in the future.

Phani Chavali (10/13/2014). Email: chsphani@gmail.com

Vanessa Tidwell: I received my PhD in August 2013. During my time in Prof. Nehorai's group, I worked on a variety of medical image analysis problems, applying statistical methods to differentiate tissues in MR images. As a postdoc, I am working on modeling of biological systems. Although this new research is not closely related to my PhD work, I felt well-prepared for it by my experience in Prof. Nehorai's lab. His emphasis on the development of fundamental skills, e.g., through study groups, provided a strong background of flexible skills with wide-ranging applications. In addition, the camaraderie he fosters among his students meant that I had a strong support network from which to seek advice for the more challenging aspects of my new research.

I also greatly appreciated the research opportunities he made available. Rather than assigning me to a project, Prof. Nehorai allowed me to choose my own research direction. Through his contacts at the WUSTL medical school, I was able to meet with medical researchers, listen to the problems they thought might benefit from collaboration, and then choose which problems seemed most interesting. I feel that this is a rare freedom for a doctoral student.

Vanessa Tidwell (10/24/2014). Email:vkt2@ese.wustl.edu

Sandeep Gonineni: I have received my PhD degree in 2012 under the guidance of Prof. Arye Nehorai. I am currently a Research Engineer at Wright State Research Institute and an onsite contractor for Air Force Research Laboratory, Dayton, OH. The 5 years I spent in Prof. Nehorai's lab were crucial in shaping my career. I have learnt a lot during my PhD. I got the freedom to work the topics of my interest and as a result, after graduation I got a research position that gives me immense work satisfaction. Instead of rushing the students to provide quick research results, Prof. Nehorai always focused on providing the perfect platform by allowing students sufficient time to develop all the necessary fundamentals through highly informative study groups organized by the senior students. Therefore, by the time I started my research, I had already become very familiar with the crucial details in my area of research. As a result, the transition to research was very smooth and easy. Also, the interactions with the other students started right from the first year while taking these study group courses. Therefore, we had a very friendly, comfortable, and collaborative environment in the lab right through our PhD studies. I will cherish the memories that we had in our group immensely.

I was supported by a multi university research grant that was headed by Prof. Nehorai. The annual progress meeting were attended by eminent researchers in the field of radar signal processing and these meetings and other conferences gave me an opportunity to interact with them and share research ideas. This was very useful in conducting my research. Prof. Nehorai had been extremely helpful during my job search after graduation. I wanted to continue working in the field of my dissertation and usually it is very difficult to find a job in such a narrow research area after completing a PhD. Prof. Nehorai contacted several of his contacts and helped me secure my current research position as a contractor for Air Force Research Laboratory. I can say that this was made possible only because of the help from him. In fact, being an international student, I needed to be employed for a couple of months before the start of my current position in order to maintain the visa status. He was very generous and hired me as a post doctoral researcher for those couple of months to solve the visa issue. Later, he provided excellent reference letter supporting my case to become a permanent lawful resident of the United States. He has been an excellent advisor and collaborator and I have continued to work and interact with him on my research even after my PhD.

Sandeep Gogineni (09/29/2014). Email: sandeep.gogineni@wright.edu

Tao Li: I had the opportunity to work under Professor Nehorai's guidance for my PhD degree from 2007 to 2012 at Washington University in St. Louis. Now I am an Imaging Geophysicist at CGG Services.

Professor Nehorai is a leading scholar in signal processing. His expertise, as well as kind and detailed guidance, played critical roles in the success of my doctoral research projects. His highly-noted reputation brings his students to a natural advantage in publishing papers and pursuing post-PhD careers. More important, Professor Nehorai is quite sensitive to new and upcoming technologies and research topics, and is always able to bring cutting-edge research projects to his students with a high rate of success in research funds applications.

Furthermore, Professor Nehorai's lab attracts students and researchers from all around the world with different majors. I highly enjoyed and benefited from working and communicating with lab mates from varieties of cultures and backgrounds. In addition, Professor Nehorai is quite flexible in managing students' research projects. I highly enjoyed the freedom choosing research projects and coursework I was most interested in.

I hope for more successes coming to professor and his group.

Tao Li (10/20/2014). Email:Tao.Li@CGG.com

Marija Nikolic: I have benefitted in many ways from having Dr. Nehorai as my advisor. Before coming to his lab, I had firm beliefs of what I want to do for research. However, his versatile scientific interests and thoughtful guidance have helped me to broaden my views and find the areas that I have a true passion for, such as microwave imaging.

Besides his professional impact, he made my staying in US, a warm and remembering experience. Through meetings, celebrations, and presentations that he organized, we learned about each other's cultures and firmed our friendships. We learned how to help each other, and not to feel aliened in a foreign country.

Finally, after becoming a faculty of the University of Belgrade in Serbia, I try to follow his energy to inspire my students. Now I realize how fun it is to run a project with junior students. I have also become aware how big responsibility and joy is to run your own laboratory. I will be always thankful for all the things I have learnt from Dr Nehorai.

Marija Nikolic (10/14/2014). Email: mnikolic@etf.rs

Gongguo Tang: I received my PhD in August 2011, and I am currently an assistant professor at Colorado School of Mines. The five years I spent at Professor Nehorai's group have been invaluable to my life and career. Professor Nehorai's mentoring style is very flexible and supportive. He would suggest several potential research topics that match the students' background and experience, and give them the freedom to choose the one they are most interested in. In my case, I have a mathematical background, which is related to but not exactly the same as signal processing. Professor suggested to me to work on compressive sensing and sparse recovery, which was a great fit to my interest and expertise and made me so productive. It is this research topic that eventually allowed me to find my current position.

Secondly, Professor Nehorai organized various programs in his lab to facilitate the students' growth. I benefited greatly from the study groups in two different ways. When I was a junior graduate students, sitting in the study groups delivered by senior graduate students allowed me to learn the materials necessary to my research. But more importantly, because these senior students were using the techniques covered in the study groups in their research, they tended to approach the course materials from a more research-oriented perspective, something one cannot get from taking regular classes. When I became a senior graduate students, the role was reversed and I needed to figure out the best way to instill the knowledge to other more junior students. This experience has made my life way-easier when I get to teach as a professor.

Last but not least, Professor Nehorai has been really supportive in every aspect of the students’' life, not only when they were in his lab but also after they had graduated for many years. He offered me guidelines and advices to things as big as job hunting and career path, and as small as drafting the CV and finding an apartment. Professor Nehorai has also been very responsive in the students' request for help, because he cares about their growth more than anything else.

Gongguo Tang (10/13/2014). Email: gtang@mines.edu

Murat Akcakaya: I earned my PhD in December of 2010, and I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Pittsburgh. During the five years I spent in Prof. Nehorai's lab, I worked on statistical signal processing with applications to radar signal processing and biologically inspired sensing. The experience I gained during that time on fundamentals of statistical signal processing through my research, the courses I took, the study groups we conducted in the lab on advanced statistics and last but not least through my interactions with Prof. Nehorai and my lab mates helped me to easily expand my research interests in also different areas of signal processing. The invaluable experience and knowledge I gained during my PhD in Prof. Nehorai's lab was the key factor in obtaining my current academic position.

Prof. Nehorai is a great advisor. He spends significant amount of time individually with every student not only to help them with their research but also to guide them on how to disseminate their research both as conference presentations and also as journal articles. Not only during my time in his lab but also after I earned my degree, Prof. Nehorai has been a great mentor to me. He has always provided me with invaluable advice on directions I can take in my career. He helped me a lot to make connections with other leading researchers in signal processing area to get my position that I held upon my graduation. He is very well known in signal processing community. His reputation has always been a significant positive effect in my job search and in getting my current position. Prof. Nehorai and I still communicate in regular basis. In fact, we recently submitted a research proposal together and we are planning to collaborate on more.

Murat Akcakaya (10/02/2014). Email: akcakaya@pitt.edu

Satyabrata Sen I received my PhD degree under the guidance of Prof. Arye Nehorai in December 2010, and currently I am working as an R&D Associate in the Computer Science and Mathematics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The five years I spent as a student of Prof. Nehorai has been one of the most memorable times in my life. As an advisor, he always gave me the freedom to work on a research topic that I found to be interesting and challenging. He never pushed for quick results simply for the sake of time, rather allowed sufficient time period to produce significant research contributions. Another important aspect of research that I learned from Prof. Nehorai is to communicate the research findings in a neat and elegant way (to the general audience) while writing the journal papers or preparing the conference slides. This issue is in general overlooked by others; but to my experience this plays a huge role in getting the appropriate visibility of one's research contributions to his/her peers. Prof. Nehorai also encourages his students to take non-departmental courses (e.g., from statistics, computer science, biology, etc.) that not only broaden one's knowledge base, but also germinate some unique inter-disciplinary research ideas.

The amalgamation of professionalism and caring attitude of Prof. Nehorai has created an open, friendly environment in his lab which is very conducive for exploratory research. As a young student, I got the opportunities to attend various study groups led by the senior students, which made me comfortable in approaching them with ease whenever I needed to. With time my role reversed; as I became senior in the lab, I instructed the study groups for younger students and helped them to blend into our lab environment. As a consequence of all these, even being in a big research group, we, the students, have always been very good friends to each other. As a group, sometimes we also gathered at Prof. Nehorai's home to celebrate someone's farewell reception or to welcome new batch of students. Till today I cherish those gatherings, and particularly the informal, round-table discussions we used to have on various topics.

Additionally, Prof. Nehorai's reputation and contacts with leading researchers have helped me to interact with them at an early stage of my career and to communicate different research ideas. After the completion of my doctoral study, he has been instrumental in helping me to search for jobs, and ultimately in getting my current position at ORNL. Even after my graduation, he has been a great mentor to me, and I look forward for his advice and guidance in years to come.

Satyabrata Sen (10/12/2014). Email: satyawantstotalk@gmail.com

Patricio S. La Rosa I obtained my PhD in Electrical Engineering at WUSTL in 2010, and now I am a Predictive Analytics Scientist at Monsanto Company.

To begin I would like to echo and join my former labmates in thanking Professor Nehorai for the excellent and strong training that he provided us on the field of Statistical Signal Processing and its applications to Biomedicine. I appreciate very much to have been introduced to his vision about developing advance statistical models that incorporate both physical and biological characteristics of the phenomena of interest. This vision became a fundamental advantage when applying for a postdoctoral position at the School of Medicine, and later on, when applying for a scientific position in a biotechnological company.

Professor Nehorai knows very well what it takes to train his students and make them successful and independent researchers. Right from the beginning I was impressed with his dedication and serious interest on advising his students on the courses that were important to take in order to embrace challenging research work. In fact, he ensures that his students get formal training on Statistics, Math, and Physics and in any other discipline that might be needed to do pioneer work. He will contact new students with Senior and former PhD students to share their experience regarding courses choices. In addition, Professor Nehorai organizes study groups aimed at strengthening the student expertise on statistics as well as providing with teaching and leadership opportunity to the most senior student.

Professor Nehorai interaction with his students is very respectful and attentive. He gives serious attention to his student opinions and assessment on technical topics, as well as he provides with the space and the freedom to explore new research topics. In addition, he also ensures that his students get experience in training and advising more junior graduate students as well as undergraduate students. In fact, I am very grateful with him for encouraging me to participate in guiding undergraduate research works which became a very enriching experience and contributed tremendously towards my development as an independent researcher.

Today I am happy that I can continue to work with him and engage with his students on challenging research projects. In fact, it is always a pleasure to be back and visit the homelab!!

Patricio S. La Rosa (2/19/2015). Email: patricio.larosa@gmail.com

*Patricio gave a one-hour testimonial presentation to the first-year ESE Ph.D. students on 10/10/2014.

Pinaki Sarder: I obtained my PhD under the supervision of Prof. Nehorai in 2010. I am currently working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Radiology department of the School of Medicine of Washington University in St. Louis. Before working here I briefly worked at the Biostatistics department of Harvard University.

The unique training that I obtained during my PhD under the supervision of Prof. Nehorai appears to be very useful in each step of my career. First, the lab's focus on training a PhD student in basics of signal processing and statistics is crucial for employing the tools from these areas in applied research. Second, the lab provides freedom to define the dissertation research in exciting new directions of national interest. This way the research work gets well attention by others working in the field and helps build reputation. Third, Prof. Nehorai encourages to focus on topics where a student can make the maximal impact and contribution based on their talent. Fourth, senior lab members in the lab train junior students on fundamental aspects of signal processing and statistics. The responsibility includes preparing lecture notes and homework assignments and correction of such assignments. This opportunity helps trainees to gain the first experience to design and teach classes in graduate level. This experience is also useful in research, and helpful for any later teaching and mentoring assignments. Fifth, Prof. Nehorai provides careful attention on students' academic writing and presentations. The training on this aspect has helped me to write manuscripts and grants in my current job without seeking major assistance from my PI. Sixth, Prof. Nehorai trains students with the art of grantsmanship on topics of national importance. This experience helps students to be critical in their research, and also may benefit them to write their own grants in the future. Fifth, students get the opportunity to interact with a diverse group of colleagues in the lab who have different ethnic origin, language, religion, race, and sexual orientation. The interaction with this diverse group of people enhances the worldliness of the students and prepares them to work with a diverse group of people along their career.

Prof. Nehorai is worldwide known for his research in statistical signal processing. This helps to build professional network both in academia and industry, as well as during the job search. For example, I was recently invited through Prof. Nehorai's connections in two institutes both in the States and outside the States for presenting my work. I still collaborate with Prof. Nehorai on new forward looking directions that resulted based on my PhD work.

Pinaki Sarder (10/04/2014). Email: sard.erp@gmail.com

Nannan Cao: I received my Ph.D. from Washington University at Saint Louis in October, 2007, under the guidance of Professor Nehorai. I am currently a scientific analyst at Frontier Wind.

My Ph.D. research was mainly focused on medical imaging using statistical signal processing methods. Academically, there are two elements that I benefited a lot from being Professor Nehorai's student. First, the skill set I learned from him was very versatile. During my graduate and post-doctoral periods, I had great fun working with different imaging modalities including electroencephalography (EEG), diffuse optical tomography (DOT), and position emission tomography (PET). After landing a job in the energy industry, I still find it exciting to be able to do data modeling, estimation, and mining by applying statistical approaches. Secondly, with Professor Nehorai's wide range of expertise, it was a great opportunity for me get exposure to different research areas, such as radar, sonar, and biomimetic. I was able to apply the beamforming technique, which was typically used in the radar signal processing, to the optical imaging and publish a journal paper on it.

Professor Nehorai is a very supportive advisor in many aspects. At the beginning of my graduate study, he made sure that the research topics I chose were truly of my interest, and suggested a series of courses in the Department of Electrical Engineering as well as Department of Statistics to help me be prepared. During the early phase of my research, he gave me very detailed guidance on how to write technical papers and presentations, which was extremely beneficial for an international student like myself. Besides, the writing and presentation skills I learned from him have also been helpful during my career. He was very supportive during my job hunt, giving helpful advice on my resume and CV, suggesting positions through his network, and also providing strong recommendations.

Professor Nehorai is a wonderful team leader. During the five years of my Ph.D., I fully enjoyed the lab environment he created, where everyone was very helpful, intelligent, and supportive, despite of our different cultural background. I received tremendous amount of good advice from the senior students on course work, research topics, as well as life in the US. I benefited a lot from the lab tradition where the senior students led study groups on linear algebra during the first summer break: It sped up my adjustment for my research work when I was more "fresh", and improved my leadership skills when I became more senior. In addition, Professor Nehorai held fun parties on major holidays, which have always been a wonderful memory.

I am grateful of being a student of Professor Nehorai and I hope his team is getting stronger and stronger.

Nannan Cao (10/19/2014). Email: nnancao@gmail.com

Martin Hurtado: I got my PhD degree from WUSTL in 2007, and I am currently assistant professor at the National University of La Plata in Argentina. I joined Prof. Nehorai's lab after getting a master degree in antenna design. Switching topics was challenging but at the same time it helped me to better understand problems such as signal processing for radar and antenna arrays.

I gained a lot of experience by working with Prof. Nehorai not only because of his guidance and remarks about my research work but also from his lab group. I enjoyed working with people with different backgrounds, both cultural and technical. Sessions of study groups and seminars with my labmates gave me a broad view of cutting-edge problems and solutions.

Being a graduate student of Prof. Nehorai was definitively a positive experience which I will never forget.

Martin Hurtado (10/17/2014). Email: martin.hurtado@ing.unlp.edu.ar

Zhi Liu: I obtained my D.Sc. degree under the guidance of Professor Arye Nehorai in Mar 2007. Currently I am the co-founder and vice president of Hisgadget Inc based in Union City, CA, a company making cool gadgets. My Doctoral experience in Prof Nehorai's lab has been one of my most exciting and rewarding periods of my life. Encouraged by him, I enjoyed a great freedom in selecting courses. In my first year at the lab, I did a vast literature research and talked throughly with Prof. Nehorai about possible research topics. He then suggested me a Doctoral research topic, which I really liked a lot and enjoyed working on. While the quality of a paper is obviously most important, Prof. Nehorai's reputation in academy is helpful in earning positive feedback from premium academic publications. In the big lab consisting of students from different countries, study groups, internal research seminars, and workshops are well organized by students themselves, from which I polished my problem-solving, communication, presentation, and team-working skills. These skills have been proved to be the most valuable assets to my career up to date. I am proud to call myself a graduate from Prof. Nehorai's lab.

Zhi Liu (10/14/2014). Email: liuzhi@gmail.com

Jian Wang: I received my Ph.D. degree from Washington University in St. Louis in May 2007. There were quite a few challenges in the years working for that degree, and a lot of fun and warmness working in Prof. Nehorai's team as well. As always I really appreciate the support and care from Prof. Nehorai and all teammates during that period.

In current world, programming ability and Statistics knowledge are in the core skill set if you would like to work on a technical position. Prof. Nehorai's team emphasizes a lot on these two skills. Now I am working in CITICS Securities and my job is to model the price and risks of financial securities. Although the topic is far away from my doctoral research topic which is RADAR statistical signal processing, I feel the academic training benefiting me from all aspects: critical thinking, scientific intuition, communication skill, organization skill, etc.

Wish the team prosperous!

Jian Wang (10/15/2014). Email: wjchicago@hotmail.com

Tong Zhao: I got my PhD degree from the department of Electrical and Systems Engineering in 2006 with the guidance from Professor Arye Nehorai. Currently, I am a Lead Engineer in the Global Research Center at General Electric.

My research area was in statistical signal processing with its application in sensor array and wireless sensor networks. The specific topics I studied include diffusive source detection and estimation, and radar waveform design. Even though right now, my regular work does not relate to those topics directly, the techniques I have learned are great helpful for my current job, including detection, estimation, optimization, Bayesian theory, etc. The knowledge I learned during my PhD study and the method to do research are treasure for me which enable my current capability to qualify my job. I really appreciate Professor Nehorai for not only giving me guidance on my research work but also creating a great environment for my PhD study which means more than degree itself for me. We had a large and great lab and very open research environment which I like very much. We can take this opportunity to discuss and learn from each other. Many brilliant ideas were inspired thought this active communication. Also, Professor Nehorai invited a lot of scholars to visit our lab, give us seminars and direct instruction on our research work though one-on-one discussion. This is very valuable thing for me which makes me open my mind to the research beyond our lab. I like my PhD study very much. Even though I takes job in industry, I still maintain strong interests in research work. Right now, I still keep contacts with Professor Nehorai, and I am very proud to see the research lab I have been stayed with becomes stronger and stronger.

Tong Zhao (10/11/2014). Email: Tong.Zhao@ge.com

Gang Shi: I got my D.Sc. degree in 2006 and currently work as an associate professor at Xidian University. In my doctoral study, I had many opportunities to learn in different areas and work on interdisciplinary work. Professor Nehorai gave me a lot of freedom in selecting courses, he also organize various types of study groups helping students moving from course work to research smoothly. In my doctoral research, I was allowed to choose research topics that I like most, which I think important for students building not only their skills and knowledge but also their interests in research work. As a world leading researcher, Professor Nehorai always bring the most recent advances in different research fields to students, many of which are not formerly published yet. I personally benefited a lot from it because I could think of or even start possible interesting work way ahead of my peers. With the deep knowledge in statistics gained from my course work and research in statistical signal processing, I found a job in biomedical research after graduation working in statistical genetics and hypertension genetics. Being in a large lab, I had a lot of interactions, supports, as well as funs with my labmates. We learned each other's work, discussed questions in research, had parties, and made friends. After graduation, I kept receiving much help from Professor Nehorai. For example, I got my current position through his connections at Xidian University.

Gang Shi (10/16/2014). Email: gangshi2000@yahoo.com

D. Gutiérrez: I arrived to the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in the Fall 1998 sponsored by the Fulbright scholarship program for international students. At my arrival, I was assigned (or perhaps chosen by) Prof. Arye Nehorai as my temporary advisor while I decided on the kind of work I wanted to do for my Master's and PhD degrees. I have been always very interested in multidisciplinary work, and in Prof. Nehorai's laboratory I was exposed for the first time to the idea of using the theory of statistical signal processing for biomedical applications. Through his mentorship, I was able to acquire a strong theoretical background which, up to this day, has allowed me to pursue research in many different areas in bioengineering.Needless to say, I never consider moving to another laboratory, then I ended getting my MSc degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (2000), and the PhD in Bioengineering (2005), both under his advice.

Besides the very diverse and multidisciplinary work being developed in Prof. Nehorai's lab, I also found the interaction with other students very gratifying. During the years I spent there, I enjoyed working around very interesting people from different cultures and with different points of view about the world, but all of them very intelligent, capable, and polite. I believe such environment is a reflection of Prof. Nehorai's sense of leadership and humanity. I personally appreciate his strong support to me, even in times when personal struggles had a negative impact in my academic performance.

I am currently an Associate Professor at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav) at Monterrey, Mexico. I landed in this job in 2006 after getting involved in the organization of a conference in Array Signal Processing by recommendation of Prof. Nehorai. Hence, even indirectly, his connections worldwide have had a positive impact in my current work. Therefore, today I am more than grateful that I was chosen to work under the advise of Prof. Nehorai in the first time.

D. Gutiérrez (10/14/2014). Email: dgtz@ieee.org

I. Samil Yetik: I had the pleasure of working with Prof. Nehorai from 2000 to 2005, four years as his PhD student and one year as a postdoctorate researcher. I am currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at TOBB ETU, Ankara, Turkey. What amazed me back then and still today is the wide areas of research he contributed tremendously ranging from radar to biomedicine, and from security to optical imaging. He was an excellent leader able to efficiently manage so many students and postdocs working with him, Observing his outstanding leadership skills, I should have known back then that he would make an excellent department chair -as he did later on at Washington University- :).

His exceptional network was certainly a big help once I was out there looking for a position as a fresh PhD graduate. I benefited tremendously from his in so many ways, he was not only a perfect leader but also a person that gave importance to social relations within the group always putting effort to bring people together and create a friendly working environment to be missed.

I know that I will always have someone that is willing to help in anyway that he can in the future as he did during the past years following my graduation.

Professor: It was a nourishing experience to be a part of your group and and a pleasure to be your student!

I. Samil Yetik (10/16/2014). Email: imamsamilyetik@gmail.com

Aleksandar Jeremic: I received my Ph.D. in 2002 under Prof. Nehorai's guidance. His research lab has always been a dynamic place where you can exchange ideas with great students and visitors. Under his guidance I had opportunity to be involved in multidisciplinary research which significantly helped me in my later career especially with the biomedical aspect of it.

In addition to his ability to maintain large research lab one of his skills that always amazed me is that he has an excellent intuition for selecting topics that will be of significant interest in the future. The best testimonial to Prof. Nehorai's mentorship skills is the fact that I often quote him both in my undergraduate and graduate classes.

Aleksandar Jeremic (11/17/2014). Email: jeremic@mail.ece.mcmaster.ca

Aleksandar Dogandzic: I particularly enjoyed working in the environment created by Prof. Nehorai and interacting with students and excellent visitors that were always around - I keep contact and occasionally meet with some of them. Prof. Nehorai encouraged us to take math and statistics graduate courses, which was greatly beneficial for my PhD and later work. I like the fact that I still regularly interact and seek advice from him on professional service and research.

Aleksandar Dogandzic (10/18/2014). Email: ald@ieee.org

Bertrand Hochwald: I am now a full professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at University of Notre Dame. I received my PhD at Yale University with Arye Nehorai. Arye is very active in research, and he made my experience at Yale enjoyable by fostering a learning atmosphere. He encouraged my excursions into a wide range of topics within signal processing, mathematics, statistics and information theory. He knew that this was a good way to foster the introduction of fresh ideas into research problems. I really enjoyed my PhD studies with him at Yale.

Bertrand Hochwald (11/3/2014). Email: bhochwal@nd.edu

David Starer: I am proud to say that I was Prof. Nehorai's first PhD student. I received my PhD under his supervision at Yale University in 1990. With his guidance, I learned the deep fundamentals of signal processing that were essential for placing me in my current position. After having worked for many years in quantitative investment management, I am now Professor of Financial Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. I teach portfolio theory, statistical learning, and numerical methods in finance. All of these topics are tightly bound to signal processing. The only difference is that instead of representing voltages, currents, or resistances, the variables represent prices or returns, trading volumes, and transaction costs. The mathematics is the same. The firm, rigorous foundation that Prof. Nehorai provided me has enabled me to make an easy transition into financial engineering.

In addition to the stimulating learning and research environment that Prof. Nehorai provided, there was always a very warm sense of camaraderie in his group. We would often have enjoyable group outings, or pot-luck dinners where we shared experiences with students from many parts of the world. Prof. Nehorai excels at bringing people together: motivating, leading, and guiding them.

Even though I graduated more than 25 years ago, I am still in frequent contact with Prof. Nehorai, and still look upon him as a mentor and close personal friend. I even quote him in my own classes. He is always very interested in my success and well-being. One could not possibly ask for more from a PhD adviser.

David Starer (11/9/2014). Email: dstarer@stevens.edu