Judea Pearl
Born	1936 Tel Aviv, Palestine
Fields	Computer Science, Statistics
Alma mater	Technion, Israel; Rutgers University, U.S.; Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, U.S.
Known for	Artificial Intelligence, Causality, Bayesian Networks

Judea Pearl is a computer scientist and philosopher, best known for developing the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence, in particular through Bayesian networks (see the article on belief propagation), and for the formalization of causal reasoning (see the article on Causality).

Biography

Pearl received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel, in 1960, a Master degree in Physics from Rutgers University, U.S., in 1965, and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, U.S., in 1965. He worked at RCA Research Laboratories on superconductive parametric and storage devices and at Electronic Memories, Inc., on advanced memory systems. He then joined UCLA in 1970, where he is currently a professor of Computer Science and Statistics and director of the Cognitive Systems Laboratory. In 2002, his son Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan, leading Judea and the other members of the family and friends to create the Daniel Pearl Foundation [1].

Research

Judea Pearl was one of the pioneers of Bayesian networks and the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence, and one of the firsts to mathematize causal modeling in the empirical sciences. His work is also intended as a high-level cognitive model. He is interested in the philosophy of science, knowledge representation, nonstandard logics, and learning. Pearl is described as "one of the giants in the field of artificial intelligence” by UCLA computer science professor Richard Korf [2]. His work on causality has "revolutionized the understanding of causality in statistics, psychology, medicine and the social sciences"[3].

Books

• Heuristics, Addison-Wesley, 1984
• Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems, Morgan-Kaufmann, 1988
• Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference, Cambridge University Press, 2000
• I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl, Jewish Lights, 2004.

Scientific papers

• List of papers on Pearl's personal website

Lectures

• Honorary Doctorate of Science degree received from the University of Toronto - commencement speech given June 21, 2007
• "The Art and Science of Cause and Effect": a slideshow and tutorial lecture by Judea Pearl
• Reasoning with Cause and Effect

Awards

• 2008--Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computers and Cognitive Science
• 2007--University of Toronto, Honorary Doctorate
• 2006--Purpose Prize
• 2004--2003 ACM Allen Newell Award
• 2003--Pekeris Memorial Lecture
• 2002--Corresponding Member, Spanish Academy of Engineering
• 2001--Lakatos Award, London School of Economics and Political Science
• 2000--AAAI Classic Paper Award
• 1999--IJCAI Award for Research Excellence in Artificial Intelligence
• 1996--UCLA 81st Faculty Research Lecturer
• 1995--Member, National Academy of Engineering
• 1990--Fellow, American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
• 1988--Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
• 1975--NATO Senior Fellowship in Science
• 1965--RCA Laboratories Achievement Award

External links

• Judea Pearl's personal website
• Daniel Pearl Foundation Website
• Interview with Judea Pearl from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum