Michael Anthony Arbib (born May 28, 1940) is an American

computational neuroscientist Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematical models, computer simulations, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to u ...

. He is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the University of California at San Diego and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

; before his 2016 retirement he was the Fletcher Jones Professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

, as well as a professor of biological sciences, biomedical engineering, electrical engineering,Gold Medal
The Atlas neuroscience and psychology.

Early life and education

Arbib was born in England on May 28, 1940, the oldest of four children. His parents moved to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

when he was about 7, and on to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

when he was about 9. Arbib was educated in New Zealand and at The Scots College in Sydney, Australia. In 1960 he took a BSc (Hons) at the University of Sydney, with the University Medal in Pure Mathematics. Arbib received his PhD in Mathematics from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1963. He was advised by

Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...

, the founder of cybernetics, and

Henry McKean Henry P. McKean, Jr. (born 1930 in Wenham, Massachusetts) is an American mathematician at the Courant Institute in New York University. He works in various areas of mathematical analysis, analysis. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy, PhD in 1955 ...

. As a student, he also worked with Warren McCulloch, the co-inventor of the

artificial neural network Artificial neural networks (ANNs), usually simply called neural networks (NNs) or neural nets, are computing systems inspired by the biological neural networks that constitute animal brains. An ANN is based on a collection of connected unit ...

and finite-state machine.

Career

Following his PhD, Arbib moved to

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

for a postdoc with

Rudolf E. Kálmán Rudolf Emil Kálmán (May 19, 1930 – July 2, 2016) was a Hungarian Americans, Hungarian-American electrical engineer, mathematician, and inventor. He is most noted for his co-invention and development of the Kalman filter, a mathematical algo ...

. Arbib spent five years at

, before moving to become becoming the founding chairman of the Department of Computer and Information Science at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

in 1970. He remained in the Department until 1986, when he joined the

. He retired and was granted emeritus status in 2016. Arbib's collected papers from the period 1960 through 1985 are held by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Awards and honors

*In 1992, Arbib was elected a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence for "his work in schema theory and neural networks to provide a linking methodology between distributed artificial intelligence and brain theory." *In 2008, Arbib was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Selected bibliography

Authored and co-authored books

* (1968) ''Algebraic Theory of Machines, Languages and Semigroups'' * (1969) ''Theories of abstract automata'' Prentice-Hall * (1973) with Louis Padulo ''System Theory. A Unified State-space Approach to Continuous and Discrete Systems'' Saunders * (1975) with Ernest G. Manes ''Arrows, Structures, and Functors: The Categorical Imperative'' Academic Press * (1978) with Suad Alagic ''The Design of Well-Structured and Correct Programs'' Springer * (1981) with A.J. Kfoury and Robert N. Moll ''A Basis for Theoretical Computer Science'' Springer * (1982) with A.J. Kfoury and Robert N. Moll ''A Programming Approach to Computability'' Springer * (1984) ''Computers and the Cybernetic Society Second Edition" Academic Press (First edition 1977) * (1985) ''In Search of the Person: Philosophical Explorations in Cognitive Science'' UMass * (1986) with Ernest G. Manes ''Algebraic Approaches to Program Semantics'' Springer * (1986) with Mary B. Hesse ''The Construction of Reality'' CUP * (1987) with E. Jeffrey Conklin and Jane C. Hill ''From Schema Theory to Language'' OUP * (1987) ''Brains, Machines, and Mathematics Second Edition'' Springer (First edition McGraw-Hill 1964 LC 63-21473) * (1988) with Robert N. Moll and A.J. Kfoury ''An Introduction to Formal Language Theory'' Springer * (1989) ''The Metaphorical Brain Second Edition" Wiley (First edition Wiley 1972 * (2005) ''Beyond the Mirror: Biology and Culture in the Evolution of Brain and Language'' OUP * (2012) ''How the Brain Got Language: The Mirror System Hypothesis'' OUP

Edited books

* (1982) with David Caplan and John C. Marshall ''Neural Models of Language Processes'' Academic Press * (1984) with Oliver G. Selfridge and Edwina L. Rissland ''Adaptive Control of Ill-Defined Systems'' Plenum Press (Proc. Nato Conference Series. II, Systems Science, V. 16, June 21–26, 1981 Devon, England) * (2003) ''The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks 2nd Edition'' MIT (First edition MIT 1995 0-262-01148-4) * (2005) with Jean-Marc Fellous ''Who Needs Emotions: The Brain Meets the Robot'' OUP

Other publications

* ''Dynamic Interactions in Neural Networks: Models and Data'' (Research Notes in Neural Computing) by Michael A. Arbib, Shun-Ichi Amari (1 January 1989) *''Vision, Brain, and Cooperative Computation'' by Michael A. Arbib (Editor), Allen R. Hanson (Editor) (24 January 1990) *''Natural and Artificial Parallel Computation'' by Michael A. Arbib (Editor), J. Alan Robinson (Editor) (Hardcover – 21 December 1990) *''Neuroscience: From Neural Networks to Artificial Intelligence : Proceedings of a US-Mexico Seminar Held in the City of Xalapa in the State of Verac'' (Lecture Notes in Mathematics) by Pablo Rudomin, et al. (1 June 1993) *''Neural Organization: Structure, Function, and Dynamics'' by Michael A. Arbib,

Péter Érdi Péter Érdi (born December 12, 1946) is a Hungarian born computational neuroscientist who now lives in Michigan, United States where he is a Henry R. Luce Professor aKalamazoo College In his career he wrote several books and published (co-publish ...

and János Szentágothai et al. (31 October 1997) *''Neuroscience and the Person: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action'' (Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action Series) by Robert J. Russell, et al. (1 January 2000) *''Computing the Brain: A Guide to Neuroinformatics'' by Michael Arbib, Jeffrey S. Grethe (15 March 2001) *''The Neural Simulation Language: A System for Brain Modeling'' by Alfredo Weitzenfeld, et al. (1 July 2002) *''Visual Structures and Integrated Functions'' (Research Notes in Neural Computing, No 3) by Michael A. Arbib, Jorg-Peter Ewert *''Visuomotor Coordination: Amphibians, Comparisons, Models, and Robots'' by Jorg Peter Ewert, Michael A. Arbib

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arbib, Michael A. 1940 births Living people American cognitive scientists British emigrants to the United States University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty University of Southern California faculty