Tom Michael Mitchell (born August 9, 1951) is an American computer scientist and the Founders University Professor at

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 ...

(CMU). He is a founder and former Chair of the Machine Learning Department at CMU. Mitchell is known for his contributions to the advancement of

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

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 re ...

, and

cognitive neuroscience Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental proces ...

and is the author of the textbook ''Machine Learning''. He is a member of the

United States 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 ...

since 2010. He is also a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

and a Fellow and past President of the

Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is an international scientific society devoted to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence. AAAI also aims to increase public understanding of artif ...

. In October 2018, Mitchell was appointed as the Interim Dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon.

Early life and education

Mitchell was born in

Blossburg, Pennsylvania Blossburg is a borough in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,536 at the 2020 census. History In 1792, a party of immigrants who were building the Williamson Road from Williamsport, in Lycoming County, to Painted Post ...

and grew up in

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

, in the town of Vestal. He received his bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering 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 1973 and a Ph.D. from

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 consider ...

under the direction of Bruce G. Buchanan in 1979.

Career

Mitchell began his teaching career at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

in 1978. During his tenure at Rutgers, he held the positions of Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science. In 1986 he left Rutgers and joined

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

as a Professor. In 1999 he became the E. Fredkin Professor in the School of Computer Science. In 2006 Mitchell was appointed as the first Chair of the Machine Learning Department within the School of Computer Science. He became University Professor in 2009, and served as Interim Dean of the

Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science The School of Computer Science (SCS) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US is a school for computer science established in 1988. It has been consistently ranked among the top computer science programs over the decades. A ...

during 2018-2019. Mitchell currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the

Allen Institute for AI The Allen Institute for AI (abbreviated AI2) is a research institute founded by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The institute seeks to achieve scientific breakthroughs by constructing AI systems with reasoning, learning, and reading capabi ...

and on the Science Board of the

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, includ ...

Honors and awards

He was elected into the

in 2010 "for pioneering contributions and leadership in the methods and applications of machine learning." He is also a Fellow of the

(AAAS) since 2008 and a Fellow the

(AAAI) since 1990. In 2016 he became a Fellow of the

. Mitchell was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

in 2015 for his contributions to machine learning and to cognitive neuroscience, and the President's Medal from

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely dedicated to mechanical ...

in 2018. He is a recipient of the

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party *National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political gr ...

Presidential Young Investigator Award The Presidential Young Investigator Award (PYI) was awarded by the National Science Foundation of the United States Federal Government. The program operated from 1984 to 1991, and was replaced by the NSF Young Investigator (NYI) Awards and Presiden ...

in 1984.

Publications

Mitchell is a prolific author of scientific works on various topics in computer science, including machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, and cognitive neuroscience. He has authored hundreds of scientific articles. Mitchell published one of the first textbooks in machine learning, entitled ''Machine Learning,'' in 1997 (publisher: McGraw Hill Education). He is also a coauthor of the following books: * J. Franklin, T. Mitchell, and S. Thrun (eds.), ''Recent Advances in Robot Learning'', Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996. * T. Mitchell, J. Carbonell, and R. Michalski (eds.), ''Machine Learning: A Guide to Current Research'', Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1986. * R. Michalski, J. Carbonell, and T. Mitchell (eds.), ''Machine Learning: An Artificial Intelligence Approach'', Volume 2,

Morgan Kaufmann Morgan Kaufmann Publishers is a Burlington, Massachusetts (San Francisco, California until 2008) based publisher specializing in computer science and engineering content. Since 1984, Morgan Kaufmann has published content on information technology ...

, 1986. * R. Michalski, J. Carbonell, and T. Mitchell (eds.), ''Machine Learning: An Artificial Intelligence Approach'', Tioga Press, 1983.

References

External links

*
List of PhDs and Postdocs supervised by Professor Tom Mitchell
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Tom M. Living people 1951 births American computer scientists MIT School of Engineering alumni Stanford University alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty Rutgers University faculty Artificial intelligence researchers Machine learning researchers Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering People from Vestal, New York Presidents of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Scientists from New York (state)