The International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), founded in September 1957 in France, is a multinational federation of 49 national member organizations (NMO), each one representing the engineering and scientific societies concerned with automatic control in its own country. The aim of the Federation is to promote the science and technology of control in the broadest sense in all systems, whether, for example, engineering, physical, biological, social or economic, in both theory and application. IFAC is also concerned with the impact of control technology on society. IFAC pursues its purpose by organizing technical meetings, by publications, and by any other means consistent with its constitution and which will enhance the interchange and circulation of information on automatic control activities. International World Congresses are held every three years. Between congresses, IFAC sponsors many symposia, conferences and workshops covering particular aspects of automatic control. The official journals of IFAC are Automatica, Control Engineering Practice, Annual Reviews in Control, Journal of Process Control, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, the Journal of Mechatronics, Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems, and the IFAC Journal of Systems and Control. Awards IFAC Fellows Major Medals Giorgio Quazza Medal Nathaniel B. Nichols Medal Industrial Achievement Award Manfred Thoma Medal High Impact Paper Award Automatica Prize Paper Award Control Engineering Practice Prize Paper Award Journal of Process Control Prize Paper Award Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence Prize Paper Award Mechatronics Journal Prize Paper Award Congress Applications Paper Prize IFAC Congress Young Author Prize Control Engineering Textbook Prize Congress Poster Paper Prize Outstanding Service Award See also American Automatic Control Council Harold Chestnut Israel Association for Automatic Control Karl Reinisch Li Huatian John C. Lozier References External links Elsevier publishers Engineering organizations Control engineering Supraorganizations