Centrally-clamped rotating disks are the basic machine element of steam and gas turbines, grinding wheels, circular saws, and computer disk memories. For these applications, it would be very desirable of transverse vibrations could be reduced. In this paper, a novel control solution based on the variable structure system (VSS) principle is presented for the control of transverse vibrations of a disk rotating with non-constant angular velocity. The most distinguishing feature of VSS is its robustness. In many cases it is insensitive to parametric uncertainty and external disturbances, Hamilton's principle is applied to derive the governing equation of the transverse vibrations for the spinning disk system. The Galerkin method is then employed to discretize the equations to ordinary differential equations. The approach is based on independent modal space control (IMSC), and the VSS principle is used to design the control procedure to suppress the transverse vibration of a rotating disk in the cases of constant and non-constant speeds. The effects of perturbation of the angular velocity and external disturbances on system stability are also investigated.