Edward Feigenbaum

Early Life and Education

Edward Albert Feigenbaum was born on January 20, 1936, in Weehawken, New Jersey. He was raised in a culturally Jewish family and spent his early years in North Bergen, New Jersey. Due to the lack of a local secondary school, Feigenbaum attended Weehawken High School, known for its college preparatory program. He was inducted into the high school's hall of fame in 1996. Wikipedia

Feigenbaum pursued higher education at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), where he completed his undergraduate degree in 1956 and his Ph.D. in 1960. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Herbert A. Simon, led to the development of EPAM, one of the first computer models of human learning. Carnegie Mellon University

Career and Research

Early Career

After completing a Fulbright Fellowship at the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom, Feigenbaum joined the University of California, Berkeley in 1960 as a faculty member in the School of Business Administration. Wikipedia

Stanford University

In 1965, Feigenbaum joined Stanford University as one of the founding members of its computer science department. He served as the director of the Stanford Computation Center from 1965 to 1968 and established the Knowledge Systems Laboratory at Stanford. Stanford University

Contributions to AI and Expert Systems

Feigenbaum is renowned for his pioneering work in the field of artificial intelligence, particularly in expert systems. He played a crucial role in several significant projects:

EPAM: One of the first models of human learning.
Dendral: A project that applied AI to organic chemistry, helping chemists identify unknown organic molecules.
MYCIN: An early expert system for medical diagnosis and therapy.
ACME and SUMEX: Important medical AI systems.

Feigenbaum also co-founded the companies IntelliCorp and Teknowledge, which were instrumental in commercializing AI technologies. ACM Turing Award

Honors and Awards

Feigenbaum's contributions to computer science and artificial intelligence have been widely recognized:

1984: Selected as an initial fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI).
1986: Elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his pioneering contributions to knowledge engineering and expert systems technology.
1994: Jointly awarded the Turing Award with Raj Reddy for pioneering the design and construction of large-scale AI systems.
1997: Received the U.S. Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Award.
2007: Inducted as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
2011: Inducted into IEEE Intelligent Systems' AI's Hall of Fame for significant contributions to AI and intelligent systems.
2012: Made a fellow of the Computer History Museum for his pioneering work in AI and expert systems.
2013: Received the IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award.

ACM Fellows, IEEE Intelligent Systems AI's Hall of Fame, Computer History Museum

Publications

Feigenbaum has edited and authored several influential works on artificial intelligence, including:

Computers and Thought: A Collection of Articles (1963)
The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence, Volumes 1-4 (1981-1989)

ACM Digital Library

Legacy

Edward Feigenbaum is often called the "father of expert systems" for his foundational work in AI. His contributions have had a lasting impact on the field, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of AI technology. Today, he is a Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Stanford University. Stanford University

References

This biography has been compiled using various sources to ensure a detailed and comprehensive account of Edward Feigenbaum's life and achievements. For further reading, please refer to the provided hyperlinks.

Dr. Edward Feigenbaum

Biography