Dr. Arthur Clark Sanderson, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, New York, died on December 14, 2025, at the age of 79, from complications of Parkinson’s disease, at his winter residence in Bonita Springs, Florida.
Born on October 23, 1946, in Providence, Rhode Island, Arthur was the son of Robert L. Sanderson and Julia A. Oldham, both educators and alumni of Brown and Pembroke Universities. He demonstrated early excellence in both scholarship and athletics, earning a Westinghouse Science Award and becoming a Rhode Island high school champion in the high hurdles. He received his B.S. degree from Brown University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.
Arthur enjoyed running, rowing, windsurfing, and skiing. He was an accomplished guitarist, banjo player, photographer and watercolorist, hobbies that he continued to pursue even as Parkinson’s disease diminished his physical abilities.
Dr. Sanderson was Co-Director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, and then Professor, Department Head of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also served as Director of Information Sciences at Philips Laboratories in Briarcliff Manor, New York, from 1985 to 1987. In 1989, Dr. Sanderson was instrumental in establishing the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and served as its founding President. He was a Fellow of the IEEE and a recipient of the IEEE Millennium Medal. From 1998 to 2000, he served as Division Director for Electrical and Communications Systems Research at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia. From 2000 through 2004, he returned to Rensselaer as Vice President for Research.
From 2009 to 2010, he served as Deputy Director of the NSF Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center at Rensselaer. In 2010–2011, he was selected as a Jefferson Science Fellow and served in the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC, where he conducted assessments and forecasts of scientific and technological developments relevant to international arms control, verification, and compliance.
Dr. Sanderson authored more than 250 journal and conference publications and six books in the areas of biomedical signal processing, robotics and automation systems, and sensor-based control. His research on sensor-based robotic control, planning and reasoning for intelligent systems, distributed sensor networks, and neural networks contributed to the development of many modern technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and driverless cars. He applied this work across manufacturing, biomedical engineering, environmental monitoring, space exploration, and security and defense systems. His work included the development of autonomous underwater vehicles and distributed sensing systems for environmental and security applications.
He held numerous international visiting appointments, including at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands; Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico, where he established the institution’s first biomedical engineering program; and the University of Tsukuba in Japan. He also served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute in Florida and as Senior Research Advisor to The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries in New York.
Dr. Sanderson was married for 55 years to Dr. Susan R. Sanderson (née Walsh). He is survived by his two children, Dr. Angeline S. Andrew of Bethel, Maine, and Andrew M. Sanderson of London, England, and by four grandchildren: Justin and Dirk Andrew, and Maggie and Julia Sanderson. He was predeceased by his brother, David W. Sanderson. He is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews and was a devoted brother-in-law to his wife’s siblings.
A memorial service will be held in the summer of 2026 at McWain Farm, the family homestead in East Waterford, Maine. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a charity of your choice.
Some remembrance of Art's legacy and impact from colleagues:
John Wen: Art hired me in 1988 (I was his first hire). He had been a mentor, a role model, and a friend for over 30 years. I always admired Art’s gift as an administrator. He was strategic and focused, but also courteous and even-keeled. He was so generous with his help — the Smart Lighting ERC would not have survived without him. I’m deeply saddened by Art’s passing and will miss Art’s keen insight and guidance.
Ken Connor: Art was a class act, as is more than apparent from the nice things everyone has already said. I had the good fortune to work with some very special people in my time at RPI, but he became department head at exactly the right time for me and the rest of the plasma research group. Even though he came from a very different part of electrical and computer engineering than our bunch of applied physicist/engineers, he helped us to build and sustain something special. Maybe being almost exactly the same age had something to do with it, but we definitely clicked. Even more likely was that he was outstanding at helping everyone he worked with be better. Maybe he was just so good at what he did (I think he was the best systems engineer I ever met) while also being able to fully get to know other people and develop relationships built on mutual respect. Probably ... all of the above. He certainly made my life better and made RPI a better place. We will all miss him but also have great memories.
Hussein Abouzeid: When Art was VP for Research, I remember how keen he was to make sure every faculty’s notable research is represented in RPI's slide portfolio that he prepared. As a member of the ECSE department's P&T review committee, he was gracious and generous with his time and advice. He was always a man of just the right amount of words. His solar underwater robots were so unique.
Ron Gutman: Art was always an outstanding person, combining a wonderful head with a well focused heart. Being in a different technical focus, I didn’t interact with him often, but I now have a common end-of-life experience, Parkinson’s. God bless the Sanderson family.
Ishwara Bhat: I have fond memories of him and I still remember talking to him in his office about my plans when he hired me in 1991, after Soli retired. He gave me good advice then. Later on when I wanted to buy a spectroscopic ellipsometer, he cost shared about $19K. That resulted in a few external research contracts and two PhD students. He was very good in teaching undergraduate courses like I think discrete time systems. Clearly remember some of my urp students talking about the courses they took from him. I was thinking about his whereabouts a few months ago. He will be missed.
Michael Shur: Art was a true gentleman who did so much for the Department. He treated people with compassion and understanding and was a great leader. Our research interests overlapped a bit on the lighting side, and I missed his presence after he retired. My sincere condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.
Rich Radke: This is sad news indeed. Art was a real gentleman and I don’t think I ever saw him ruffled, even though the early days of the ERC were challenging. I mainly appreciated Art’s work-life balance; I remember asking his advice about places to visit in Hawaii since IIRC he had gone there several times for windsurfing.
Meng Wang: This is such a sad news. Athough I did not have extensive interactions with him, he left a strong impression on me. He was mentally sharp, energetic, and carried himself with quiet dignity. This is how I will remember him.
Ali Tajer: Very sad news. He was such a gentleman. Before he retired, we occasionally ran into each other at a couple of coffee shops in Saratoga on weekends. Always super pleasant conversations. I also vividly remember him sitting at the back of the room when I gave my job talk in JEC 3117. His eyes were showing all the attention he was paying.
Birsen Yazici: I am very saddened to hear this. I served in a couple of student committees with Art and took over teaching pattern recognition from him. He was a gentleman and definitely had leadership qualities.