2011 American Control Conference - ACC 2011 San Francisco, California, USA June 29 - July 1, 2011 Greetings from The General Chair On behalf of ACC Organizing Committee, I am pleased to welcome you to the 2011 ACC that will be held in San Francisco at the downtown Hilton Hotel.  It has been over a decade since ACC was held in San Francisco.  The ACC is the premier automatic control technical conference held in the United States for over 50 years.  We welcome those colleagues, friends and contributors from abroad whose participation significantly enhances the ACC.  San Francisco is a world class city that is renowned for the diversity of its culture.  It is home to historic Chinatown, the lively Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Chocolate, and to over 3,000 restaurants.  The views of the Bridge, the Bay, and the local Victorian neighborhoods with the well-known cable cars cannot be matched. A visit to the "city by the bay" is always an exciting and unique experience. The ACC is held in cooperation with the International Federation of Automatic Controls (IFAC) and is sponsored by the ACC's eight member societies: AIAA, AIChE, SIAM, ASCE, IEEE, ASME, ISA, and SCS.  Volunteers from these societies form the backbone of the AACC and ACC, and their efforts have allowed the organization and conference to flourish over the years. ACC is a conference that provides a forum for bringing industry and academia together to discuss the latest developments in the area of Automatic Control Systems, from new control theories, to the advances in sensors and actuator technologies, and to new applications areas for automation.  The 2011 ACC will focus on three themes:    -        Energy Systems    -        Transportation    -        Health Care Therefore, papers, plenary and semi-plenary speeches, special sessions and panel discussions, with their focus on these three themes, are being organized and prepared for the 2011 ACC.  I welcome any ideas you may have for enhancing the quality and goals of the 2011 ACC. Especially, I encourage you to organize special sessions, and make technical contributions related to the themes of this conference. The ACC is an all-volunteer conference.  Every year many of our colleagues and friends volunteer their time to contribute to the common goal, to make the ACC a successful conference.  This year is no exception.  We have an outstanding Organizing Committee and Program Committee.  Together, they are preparing an excellent technical program. I express my sincere gratitude to all members of the Organizing Committee who are spending countless hours to organize the conference activities while engaged in their full-time positions:  Faryar Jabbari (Program Chair), George Chiu (Finance), Maryam Khanbaghi (Local Arrangements) Jeannie Falcon (Exhibits), John Wagner (Student Affairs), Jurek Sasiadek (Invited Sessions), Farshad Khorrami (Industry & Application Sessions), Martha Grover (Publication), Mayuresh Kothare (Registration), John Wen (Special Sessions), Mehdi Ahmadian (Publicity), Yingzi Lin (Workshops), and Pasquale DaPonte (International Sessions).  Again, welcome and thank you for your contributions to the 2011 ACC.  We hope you will join us in San Francisco to enjoy a beautiful city and an exciting conference, with the technical program, events, and opportunities to meet old and new friends. Rahmat Shoureshi 2011 ACC General Chair