Donald Geman
Encyclopedia
Donald Geman is an American
statistician and a leading researcher in the realm of machine learning
and pattern recognition
. He and his brother, Stuart Geman, are very well known for proposing the Gibbs sampler
and for the first proof of the convergence of the simulated annealing algorithm
in one of their works, which became a highly cited work in the realm of engineering. He is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins University
and simultaneously a visiting professor at École Normale Supérieure de Cachan
.
in 1961. In 1963, he transferred to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
, where he graduated in 1965. He graduated from Northwestern University
in the field of mathematics in 1970. His dissertation was entitled as "Horizontal-window conditioning and the zeros of stationary processes." He joined University of Massachusetts Amherst
in 1970, where he retired as a distinguished professor in 2001. Thereafter, he became a professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics at Johns Hopkins University
. He has also been a visiting professor at the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan
since 2001. He is now a Fellow of Institute of Mathematical Statistics
.
. Some of his recent works include the introduction of coarse-to-fine hierarchical cascades for object detection in computer vision and the TSP (Top Scoring Pairs) classifier as a simple and robust rule for classifiers trained on high dimensional small sample datasets in bioinformatics
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
statistician and a leading researcher in the realm of machine learning
Machine learning
Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as from sensor data or databases...
and pattern recognition
Pattern recognition
In machine learning, pattern recognition is the assignment of some sort of output value to a given input value , according to some specific algorithm. An example of pattern recognition is classification, which attempts to assign each input value to one of a given set of classes...
. He and his brother, Stuart Geman, are very well known for proposing the Gibbs sampler
Gibbs sampling
In statistics and in statistical physics, Gibbs sampling or a Gibbs sampler is an algorithm to generate a sequence of samples from the joint probability distribution of two or more random variables...
and for the first proof of the convergence of the simulated annealing algorithm
Simulated annealing
Simulated annealing is a generic probabilistic metaheuristic for the global optimization problem of locating a good approximation to the global optimum of a given function in a large search space. It is often used when the search space is discrete...
in one of their works, which became a highly cited work in the realm of engineering. He is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
and simultaneously a visiting professor at École Normale Supérieure de Cachan
École Normale Supérieure de Cachan
The École Normale Supérieure de Cachan is one of the most prestigious French Grandes Écoles. Like all the other Grandes Écoles, this higher education institution is not included in the mainstream framework of the French public universities...
.
Biography
Geman was born in Chicago in 1943. He started studying English literature at Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1961. In 1963, he transferred to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
, where he graduated in 1965. He graduated from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
in the field of mathematics in 1970. His dissertation was entitled as "Horizontal-window conditioning and the zeros of stationary processes." He joined University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
in 1970, where he retired as a distinguished professor in 2001. Thereafter, he became a professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
. He has also been a visiting professor at the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan
École Normale Supérieure de Cachan
The École Normale Supérieure de Cachan is one of the most prestigious French Grandes Écoles. Like all the other Grandes Écoles, this higher education institution is not included in the mainstream framework of the French public universities...
since 2001. He is now a Fellow of Institute of Mathematical Statistics
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts of the world...
.
Work
D. Geman and J. Horowitz published a series of papers during the late 70s on local times and occupation densities of stochastic processes. A survey of this work and other related problems can be found in the Annals of Probability. In 1984 with his brother Stuart, he published a milestone paper which is still today one of the most cited papers in the engineering literature. It introduces a Bayesian paradigm using Markov Random Fields for the analysis of images. This approach has been highly influential over the last 20 years and remains a rare tour de force in this rapidly evolving field. In another milestone paper, in collaboration with Y. Amit, he introduced the notion for randomized decision trees which have been called random forests and popularized by Leo BreimanLeo Breiman
Leo Breiman was a distinguished statistician at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, and was a member of the United States National Academy of Science....
. Some of his recent works include the introduction of coarse-to-fine hierarchical cascades for object detection in computer vision and the TSP (Top Scoring Pairs) classifier as a simple and robust rule for classifiers trained on high dimensional small sample datasets in bioinformatics
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...
.