Edward Albert Feigenbaum (born January 20, 1936) is a

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...

working in the field of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

, and joint winner of the 1994 ACM

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in compu ...

. He is often called the "father of

expert system In artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system emulating the decision-making ability of a human expert. Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning through bodies of knowledge, represented mainly as if� ...

s."

Education and early life

Feigenbaum was born in

Weehawken, New Jersey Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 17,197.

in 1936 to a culturally

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, and moved to nearby

North Bergen North Bergen is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a total population of 63,361. The township was founded in 1843. It was much diminished in territory by ...

, where he lived until the age of 16, when he left to start college. Knuth, Don
"Oral History of Edward Feigenbaum''

Computer History Museum The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age, and explores the computing revolution and its impact o ...

, 2007. Accessed October 23, 2015. "I was born in Weehawken, New Jersey, which is a town on the Palisades opposite New York. In fact, it’s the place where the Lincoln Tunnel dives under the water and comes up in New York. Then my parents moved up the Palisades four miles to a town called North Bergen, and there I lived until I was 16 and went off to Carnegie Tech." His hometown did not have a secondary school of its own, and so he chose

Weehawken High School Weehawken High School is a six-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in seventh through twelfth grade from Weehawken in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Weehawken School District. The sch ...

for its college preparatory program. He was inducted into his high school's hall of fame in 1996. Feigenbaum completed his undergraduate degree (1956), and a Ph.D. (1960), at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

). In his PhD thesis, carried out under the supervision of Herbert A. Simon, he developed

EPAM EPAM Systems, Inc. ("Effective Programming for America") is an American company that specializes in service development, digital platform engineering, and digital product design, operating out of Newtown, Pennsylvania. History Early years I ...

, one of the first computer models of how people learn.

Career and research

Feigenbaum completed a Fulbright Fellowship at the National Physics Laboratory and in 1960 went to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

, to teach in the School of Business Administration. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1965 as one of the founders of its computer science department. He was the director of the Stanford Computation Center from 1965 to 1968. He established the

Knowledge Systems Laboratory Knowledge Systems Laboratory (KSL) was an artificial intelligence research laboratory within the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University until 2007, located in the Gates Computer Science Building, Stanford. Work focused on knowledg ...

Stanford University 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 conside ...

. Important projects that Feigenbaum was involved in include systems in medicine, as

ACME Acme is Ancient Greek (ακμή; English transliteration: ''akmē'') for "the peak", "zenith" or "prime". It may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Acme'' (album), an album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion * Acme and Septimius, a fictional ...

, Mycin, SUMEX, and Dendral. He also co-founded companies IntelliCorp and Teknowledge. Since 2000 Feigenbaum is a

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 ...

of Computer Science at

. His former doctoral students include

Peter Karp Peter Karp is an American roots-based folk and blues singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist. He resides in Leiper's Fork, Tennessee, United States. Early life and career Peter Karp was born in Leonia, New Jersey, United States, and lived in ...

, Niklaus Wirth, and Alon Halevy.

Honors and awards

* 1984: Selected as one of the initial fellows of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) * 1986: Elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

for pioneering contributions to knowledge engineering and expert systems technology, and for leadership in education and technology of applied artificial intelligence. * 1994:

jointly with

Raj Reddy Dabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy (born 13 June 1937) is an Indian-American computer scientist and a winner of the Turing Award. He is one of the early pioneers of artificial intelligence and has served on the faculty of Stanford and Carnegie Mello ...

for "pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology". * 1997: U.S. Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Award * 2007: Inducted as fellow of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

(ACM) * 2011:

IEEE Intelligent Systems ''IEEE Intelligent Systems'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the IEEE Computer Society and sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), British Computer Society (BCS), and European As ...

br>AI's Hall of Fame
for "significant contributions to the field of AI and intelligent systems". * 2012. Made fellow of the

"for his pioneering work in artificial intelligence and expert systems." * 2013.

IEEE Computer Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

Computer Pioneer Award The Computer Pioneer Award was established in 1981 by the Board of Governors of the IEEE Computer Society to recognize and honor the vision of those people whose efforts resulted in the creation and continued vitality of the computer industry. ...

for "pioneering work in Artificial Intelligence, including development of the basic principles and methods of knowledge-based systems and their practical applications".

Works

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feigenbaum, Edward 1936 births Living people Artificial intelligence researchers Turing Award laureates 20th-century American Jews Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Carnegie Mellon University alumni History of artificial intelligence Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Chief Scientists of the United States Air Force Stanford University School of Engineering faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering People from North Bergen, New Jersey People from Weehawken, New Jersey Presidents of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Haas School of Business faculty Weehawken High School alumni 21st-century American Jews