Judea Pearl is a
computer scientist and philosopher, best known for developing the
probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence, in particular
through Bayesian networks (see the article on belief propagation), and
for the formalization of causal reasoning (see the article on
Causality).
Biography
Pearl received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the
Technion, Israel, in 1960, a Master degree in Physics from Rutgers
University, U.S., in 1965, and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical
Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, U.S., in 1965.
He worked at RCA Research Laboratories on superconductive parametric
and storage devices and at Electronic Memories, Inc., on advanced
memory systems. He then joined UCLA in 1970, where he is currently a
professor of Computer Science and Statistics and director of the
Cognitive Systems Laboratory. In 2002, his son Daniel Pearl was
kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan, leading Judea and the other
members of the family and friends to create the Daniel Pearl
Foundation.
Research
Judea Pearl was one of the pioneers of Bayesian networks and the
probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence, and one of the
firsts to mathematize causal modeling in the empirical sciences. His
work is also intended as a high-level cognitive model. He is
interested in the philosophy of science, knowledge representation,
nonstandard logics, and learning. Pearl is described as "one of the
giants in the field of artificial intelligence” by UCLA computer
science professor Richard Korf [2]. His work on causality has
"revolutionized the understanding of causality in statistics,
psychology, medicine and the social sciences"[3].
Books
Heuristics, Addison-Wesley, 1984
Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems, Morgan-Kaufmann, 1988
Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference, Cambridge University
Press, 2000
I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel
Pearl, Jewish Lights, 2004.
Scientific papers
List of papers on Pearl's personal website
Lectures Honorary Doctorate of
Science degree received from the University of Toronto - commencement
speech given June 21, 2007
"The Art and Science of Cause and Effect": a slideshow and tutorial
lecture by Judea Pearl
Reasoning with Cause and Effect
Awards
2008--Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computers and Cognitive Science
2007--University of Toronto, Honorary Doctorate
2006--Purpose Prize
2004--2003 ACM Allen Newell Award
2003--Pekeris Memorial Lecture
2002--Corresponding Member, Spanish Academy of Engineering
2001--Lakatos Award, London School of Economics and Political Science
2000--AAAI Classic Paper Award
1999--IJCAI Award for Research Excellence in Artificial Intelligence
1996--UCLA 81st Faculty Research Lecturer
1995--Member, National Academy of Engineering
1990--Fellow, American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
1988--Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
1975--NATO Senior Fellowship in Science
1965--RCA Laboratories Achievement Award |