Judea Pearl, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence and a professor of computer science at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science and Technology degree from Carnegie Mellon University.
Pearl is being recognized for his “landmark achievements in the theory and practice of artificial intelligence.” His influential writings and wide-ranging research, the university noted in announcing the honorary degree, has had “sweeping impact for statistics, philosophy, biomedicine and econometrics, to name a few” disciplines, and has had a profound influence on computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon. Pearl will receive the honor at Carnegie Mellon’s commencement on May 17.
Pearl is the creator of a computational foundation for processing information under uncertainty, a core problem faced by intelligent systems. He has developed methods that enable machines to reason about actions and observations, and to assess cause-effect relationships from empirical findings. His work serves applications ranging from medical diagnosis to homeland security, and has influenced the understanding of human reasoning and the philosophy of science.
Pearl earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Technion in Israel, a master’s degree in physics from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. He joined the UCLA faculty in 1970.
His many honors include the A.M. Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery, known as the Nobel Prize for computer science, as well as honorary doctorates from Texas A & M, the University of Toronto and Chapman University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Cognitive Science Society, and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
Pearl is president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, named in honor of his son.
