Edward Feigenbaum

Early Life and Education

Edward Albert Feigenbaum, born January 20, 1936, in Weehawken, New Jersey, is an American computer scientist known as the "father of expert systems." He earned his bachelor's degree from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1956 and his Ph.D. in 1960 under Herbert A. Simon. His dissertation produced EPAM, one of the first computer models of human learning.

Career and Contributions

From 1960 to 1965 Feigenbaum taught at UC Berkeley. In 1965 he joined Stanford University, co-founding its computer science department. At Stanford he led DENDRAL, a landmark expert system for molecular structure analysis, and MYCIN for medical diagnosis. He co-founded IntelliCorp and Teknowledge to commercialize knowledge engineering. He served as Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force.

Awards and Honors

• 1994: ACM A.M. Turing Award (shared with Raj Reddy) for pioneering large-scale AI systems
• 1997: U.S. Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Award
• 2007: Named ACM Fellow
• 2012: Computer History Museum Fellow
• 2013: IEEE Computer Pioneer Award

Career Timeline

• 1936: Born in Weehawken, New Jersey
• 1956: B.S. from Carnegie Institute of Technology
• 1960: Ph.D. under Herbert A. Simon; developed EPAM
• 1960-1965: Faculty at UC Berkeley
• 1965: Joined Stanford University; co-founded CS department
• 1960s-1970s: Led DENDRAL and MYCIN projects
• 1981: Co-founded Teknowledge
• 1994: ACM A.M. Turing Award
• 2000: Became Professor Emeritus at Stanford
• 2012: Computer History Museum Fellow