Judea Pearl
Encyclopedia
Judea Pearl is a computer scientist
and philosopher, best known for developing the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence
and the development of Bayesian networks (see the article on belief propagation
).
He is also credited for developing a method of causal and counterfactual inference based on structural models (see article on causality
).
Judea Pearl is the father of journalist Daniel Pearl
, who was kidnapped and murdered by militants in Pakistan
connected with Al-Qaeda and the International Islamic Front in 2002 for his being American
and Jewish.
, 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's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
in 1970, where he is currently a professor of Computer Science and Statistics and director of the Cognitive Systems Laboratory. He and his wife, Ruth had three children. In addition, , he is a member of the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor
.
, a journalist working for the Wall Street Journal was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan
, leading Judea and the other members of the family and friends to create the Daniel Pearl Foundation
. On the seventh anniversary of Daniel's death, Judea wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal titled Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil: When will our luminaries stop making excuses for terror?.
approach to artificial intelligence
, and one of the first 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. His work on causality has "revolutionized the understanding of causality in statistics, psychology, medicine and the social sciences" according to the Association for Computing Machinery
.
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
and philosopher, best known for developing the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
and the development of Bayesian networks (see the article on belief propagation
Belief propagation
Belief propagation is a message passing algorithm for performing inference on graphical models, such as Bayesian networks and Markov random fields. It calculates the marginal distribution for each unobserved node, conditional on any observed nodes...
).
He is also credited for developing a method of causal and counterfactual inference based on structural models (see article on causality
Causality
Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
).
Judea Pearl is the father of journalist Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl was an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed by Al-Qaeda.At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, and was based in Mumbai, India. He went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between...
, who was kidnapped and murdered by militants in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
connected with Al-Qaeda and the International Islamic Front in 2002 for his being American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Jewish.
Biography
Judea Pearl received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, in 1960, a Master degree in Physics from Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, 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's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of California, Los Angeles was opened with an enrollment of 379 students in the fall of 1945. It opened as the College of Engineering until it was changed to school on February 21, 1969. The School now has seven...
in 1970, where he is currently a professor of Computer Science and Statistics and director of the Cognitive Systems Laboratory. He and his wife, Ruth had three children. In addition, , he is a member of the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor
NGO Monitor
NGO Monitor is a non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem, Israel whose stated aim is to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic organizations and the...
.
Murder of Daniel Pearl
In 2002, his son, Daniel PearlDaniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl was an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed by Al-Qaeda.At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, and was based in Mumbai, India. He went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between...
, a journalist working for the Wall Street Journal was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, leading Judea and the other members of the family and friends to create the Daniel Pearl Foundation
Daniel Pearl Foundation
The Daniel Pearl Foundation is a foundation based in the United States. The foundation was formed by his parents Ruth and Judea Pearl after musician and Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in 2002...
. On the seventh anniversary of Daniel's death, Judea wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal titled Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil: When will our luminaries stop making excuses for terror?.
Research
Judea Pearl was one of the pioneers of Bayesian networks and the probabilisticProbability
Probability is ordinarily used to describe an attitude of mind towards some proposition of whose truth we arenot certain. The proposition of interest is usually of the form "Will a specific event occur?" The attitude of mind is of the form "How certain are we that the event will occur?" The...
approach to artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, and one of the first to mathematize causal modeling in the empirical sciences. His work is also intended as a high-level cognitive model
Cognitive model
A cognitive model is an approximation to animal cognitive processes for the purposes of comprehension and prediction. Cognitive models can be developed within or without a cognitive architecture, though the two are not always easily distinguishable.In contrast to cognitive architectures, cognitive...
. 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. His work on causality has "revolutionized the understanding of causality in statistics, psychology, medicine and the social sciences" according to the Association for Computing Machinery
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
.
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
Lectures
- "The Algorithmization of Counterfactuals" video of the Rumelhart Lecture given July 21, 2011.
- "On Causes and Counterfactuals" video of a lecture given at a tribute sympoium, March 12, 2010
- 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
- 2012--Harvey Prize (For "foundational work that has touched a multitude of spheres of modern life")
- 2011--IEEE Intelligent SystemsIEEE Intelligent SystemsIEEE Intelligent Systems, a bimonthly publication of the IEEE Computer Society. It is an AAAI-sponsored journal. Cosponsors are the British Computer Society and the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence....
' AI's Hall of Fame - 2011--David E. Rumelhart Prize (For Contributions to the Theoretical Foundations of Human Cognition)
- 2011--Rumelhart Prize Symposium in honor of Judea Pearl
- 2010--Festschrift and symposium in honor of Judea Pearl
- 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
- http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/IJCAI99/index.html1999--IJCAI Award for Research ExcellenceIJCAI Award for Research ExcellenceThe IJCAI Award for Research Excellence is a biannual award given at the IJCAI conference to researcher in artificial intelligence as a recognition of excellence of their career...
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
External links
- Judea Pearl's personal website
- Daniel Pearl Foundation Website
- Interview with Judea Pearl from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Interview with Judea Pearl on Robots and Free Will