Stuart Alan Geman (born March 23, 1949) is an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

, known for influential contributions to computer vision, statistics, probability theory,

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

, and the neurosciences. ikipediaList of important publications in computer science. He and his brother, Donald Geman, are well known for proposing the Gibbs sampler, and for the first proof of convergence of the simulated annealing algorithm.

Biography

Geman was born and raised in Chicago. He was educated at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

(B.S., Physics, 1971), Dartmouth Medical College (MS, Neurophysiology, 1973), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D, Applied Mathematics, 1977). Since 1977, he has been a member of the faculty at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, where he has worked in the

Pattern Theory Pattern theory, formulated by Ulf Grenander, is a mathematical formalism to describe knowledge of the world as patterns. It differs from other approaches to artificial intelligence in that it does not begin by prescribing algorithms and machin ...

group, and is currently the James Manning Professor of Applied Mathematics. He has received many honors and awards, including selection as a Presidential Young Investigator and as an ISI Highly Cited researcher. He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, and a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and of the American Mathematical Society. He was elected to the US

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 2011.

Work

Geman's scientific contributions span work in probabilistic and statistical approaches to

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

Markov random fields In the domain of physics and probability, a Markov random field (MRF), Markov network or undirected graphical model is a set of random variables having a Markov property described by an undirected graph. In other words, a random field is said to ...

Markov chain Monte Carlo In statistics, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is a class of algorithms used to draw samples from a probability distribution. Given a probability distribution, one can construct a Markov chain whose elements' distribution approximates it – that ...

(MCMC) methods, nonparametric inference, random matrices, random dynamical systems, neural networks, neurophysiology, financial markets, and natural image statistics. Particularly notable works include: the development of the Gibbs sampler, proof of convergence of simulated annealing, foundational contributions to the Markov random field ("graphical model") approach to inference in vision and machine learning, and work on the compositional foundations of vision and cognition.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geman, Stuart Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1949 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American probability theorists American statisticians Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Brown University faculty Geisel School of Medicine alumni University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni