Judea Pearl

Infobox Scientist


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name = Judea Pearl
birth_date =1936
birth_place =Tel Aviv, Palestine
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field = Computer Science, Statistics
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alma_mater = Technion, Israel; Rutgers University, U.S.; Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, U.S.
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known_for = Artificial Intelligence, Causality, Bayesian Networks
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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 [http://www.danielpearl.org] .

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 [http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/magazine/pearl.html] . His work on causality has "revolutionized the understanding of causality in statistics, psychology, medicine and the social sciences" [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/Newell_2003.htm] .

Books

* "Heuristics", Addison-Wesley, 1984
* "Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems", Morgan-Kaufmann, 1988
* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/BOOK-2K/index.html "Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference"] , Cambridge University Press, 2000
* [http://www.jewishlights.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=JL&Product_Code=1-58023-183-7&Category_Code "I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl"] , Jewish Lights, 2004.

cientific papers

* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/csl_papers.html List of papers on Pearl's personal website]

Lectures

* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3669777328062859687&hl=en Honorary Doctorate of Science degree received from the University of Toronto - commencement speech given June 21, 2007]
* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/LECTURE/lecture_sec1.htm "The Art and Science of Cause and Effect": a slideshow and tutorial lecture by Judea Pearl]
* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/IJCAI99/ijcai-99.pdf Reasoning with Cause and Effect]

Awards

* [http://www.fi.edu/franklinawards/08/laureate_bf_computerccs-pearl.html 2008--Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computers and Cognitive Science]
* [http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/070424-3110.asp 2007--University of Toronto, Honorary Doctorate]
* [http://www.purposeprize.org/finalists/pearl-ahmed.cfm 2006--Purpose Prize]
* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/Newell_2003.htm 2004--2003 ACM Allen Newell Award]
* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/pekeris03.html 2003--Pekeris Memorial Lecture]
* 2002--Corresponding Member, Spanish Academy of Engineering
* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/lakatos.htm 2001--Lakatos Award, London School of Economics and Political Science]
* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/aaai-award2k.html 2000--AAAI Classic Paper Award]
* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/IJCAI99/index.html 1999--IJCAI Award for Research Excellence in Artificial Intelligence]
* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/LECTURE/lecture_sec1.htm 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

External links

* [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/jp_home.html Judea Pearl's personal website]
* [http://www.danielpearl.org Daniel Pearl Foundation Website]
* [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/?content=20070927 Interview with Judea Pearl] from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Persondata
NAME= Pearl, Judea
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Computer scientist
DATE OF BIRTH=1936
PLACE OF BIRTH=Tel Aviv, Israel
DATE OF DEATH=
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