Judea Pearl Explained
Judea Pearl (born September 4, 1936) is an Israeli-American computer scientist and philosopher, best known for championing the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence and the development of Bayesian networks (see the article on belief propagation). He is also credited for developing a theory of causal and counterfactual inference based on structural models (see article on causality). In 2011, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) awarded Pearl with the Turing Award, the highest distinction in computer science, "for fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence through the development of a calculus for probabilistic and causal reasoning".[1] [3] [4] He is the author of several books, including the technical Causality: Models, Reasoning and Inference, and The Book of Why, a book on causality aimed at the general public.
Judea Pearl is the father of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan connected with Al-Qaeda and the International Islamic Front in 2002 for his American and Jewish heritage.[5] [6]
Biography
Judea Pearl was born in Tel Aviv, British Mandate for Palestine, in 1936 to Polish Jewish immigrant parents.[7] He is a descendant of Menachem Mendel of Kotzk on his mother's side. After serving in the Israel Defense Forces and joining a kibbutz, Pearl decided to study engineering in 1956. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from the Technion 1960. That same year, he emigrated to the United States and pursued graduate studies. He received an M.S. in electrical engineering from the Newark College of Engineering (now New Jersey Institute of Technology) in 1961, and went on to receive an M.S. in physics from Rutgers University and a PhD in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now the New York University Tandon School of Engineering) in 1965.[8] He worked at RCA Research Laboratories (now SRI International) in Princeton, New Jersey on superconductive parametric amplifiers and storage devices and at Electronic Memories, Inc., on advanced memory systems.[8] When semiconductors "wiped out" Pearl's work, as he later expressed it,[9] he joined UCLA's School of Engineering in 1970 and started work on probabilistic artificial intelligence. He is one of the founding editors of the Journal of Causal Inference.
Pearl is currently a professor of computer science and statistics and director of the Cognitive Systems Laboratory at UCLA. He and his wife, Ruth, had three children. In addition,, he is a member of the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor.[10]
Former Israeli Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, partnered with Judea Pearl in the documentary With My Whole Broken Heart.[11]
Murder of Daniel Pearl
In 2002, his son, Daniel Pearl, a journalist working for the Wall Street Journal was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan, leading Judea and the other members of the family and friends to create the Daniel Pearl Foundation.[12] On the seventh anniversary of Daniel's death, Judea wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal titled Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil: When will our luminaries stop making excuses for terror?.[13]
Emeritus Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks quoted Judea Pearl's beliefs in a lesson on Judaism: "I asked Judea Pearl, father of the murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, why he was working for reconciliation between Jews and Muslims...he replied with heartbreaking lucidity, 'Hate killed my son. Therefore I am determined to fight hate.'"[14]
Views
On his religious views, Pearl states that he is a "practicing disbeliever."[15] [16] He is very connected to Jewish traditions such as holidays and kiddush on Friday night.[17]
Research
Judea Pearl is credited for "laying the foundations of modern artificial intelligence, so computer systems can process uncertainty and relate causes to effects."He is one of the pioneers of Bayesian networks and the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence, and one of the first 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.[18] His work on causality has "revolutionized the understanding of causality in statistics, psychology, medicine and the social sciences" according to the Association for Computing Machinery.[19]
Notable contributions
- A summary of Pearl's scientific contributions is available in a chronological account authored by Stuart J. Russell (2012).
- An annotated bibliography of Pearl's contributions was compiled by the ACM in 2012.
- A video describing Pearl's major contributions to AI is available here.
- Pearl's opinion pieces, touching on Jewish identity, the war on terrorism, and the Middle East conflict can be accessed here.
Books
- Heuristics, Addison-Wesley, 1984
- Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems, Morgan-Kaufmann, 1988
- Book: Causality (book). Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference. Judea Pearl. Judea. Pearl. Cambridge University Press. 2000.
- I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl, Jewish Lights, 2004. (Winner of a 2004 National Jewish Book Award)
- Causal Inference in Statistics: A Primer, (with Madelyn Glymour and Nicholas Jewell), Wiley, 2016.
- Book: Judea Pearl. Judea. Pearl. The Book of Why. The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect. 2018. Dana Mackenzie.
Awards
- BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2021)
- Carnegie Corporation of New York as an honoree of the Great Immigrants Awards[20]
- Classic Paper Award, Artificial Intelligence Journal AIJ Awards (2020)
- Honorary Fellow, Royal Statistical Society AI pioneer named Royal Statistical Society Honorary Fellow (2020)
- Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[21] (2019)
- Honorary Doctorate, Hebrew University of Jerusalem http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/pearl-hebrew-univ-jerusalem-dec2018.pdf (2018)
- Honorary Doctorate, Yale University Judea Pearl receives honorary doctorate from Yale, (2018)
- Edward A. Dickson Award, UCLA Judea Pearl Wins UCLA Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award | CS(2018)
- Ulf Grenander Prize, American Mathematical Society News from the AMS (2018)
- Sells Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement, Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology Sells Award for Distinguished Multivariate Research | SMEP (2016)
- Fellow, ACM Judea Pearl named Association for Computing Machinery Fellow (2015)
- Dickson Prize, Carnegie Mellon University Pearl wins Dickson Prize from Carnegie Mellon (2015)
- Classic Paper Award, Artificial Intelligence Journal 2015 AIJ CLASSIC PAPER AWARD (2015)
- Honorary Doctorate, Carnegie Mellon University Judea Pearl to receive honorary doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University (2015)
- Member, National Academy of Sciences.[22] UCLA artificial intelligence pioneer elected to the National Academy of Sciences(2014)
- Honorary Doctorate, Texas A&M Graduation - Honorary Degrees (2014)
- Lynford Lecture and Distinguished Alumni Award, NYU-Polytechnic Computer Scientist and Philosopher Judea Pearl Delivers 15th Annual Lynford Lecture on Science of Cause and Effect | NYU Tandon School of Engineering (2013)
- Medallion Lecture, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, JSM-2013 Institute of Mathematical Statistics | Medallion Lecture: Judea Pearl(2013)
- Special Issue honoring Judea Pearl, Cognitive Science Journal http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cogs.2013.37.issue-6/issuetoc (2013)
- ACM Turing Award,[1] [3] Association for Computing Machinery Judea Pearl Wins 2011 ACM Turing Award (2012)
- Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences Judea Pearl (2012)
- Harvey Prize, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2011/12/professor-sir-richard-friend-and-professor-judea-pearl-winners-of-the-2011-harvey-prize/ (2012)
- Fellow, Cognitive Science Society Fellows of the Society (2011)
- David E. Rumelhart Prize, Cognitive Science Society Rumelhart Prize (2011)
- IEEE Intelligent Systems' AI's Hall of Fame[23] (2011)
- Otis Dudley Duncan Memorial Lecture, American Sociological Society (2010)
- Festschrift and symposium in honor of Judea Pearl TRIBUTE TO JUDEA PEARL (2010)
- Heuristics, Probability and Causality: A Tribute to Judea Pearl, R. Dechter, H. Geffner, and J.Y. Halpern (Eds.), College Publication http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/TRIBUTE/festschrift-complete.pdf (2010)
- Honorary Doctorate, Chapman University http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1178&context=press_releases (2008)
- Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computers and Cognitive Science, The Franklin Institute https://samueli.ucla.edu/computer-science-professor-wins-2008-benjamin-franklin-medal/ (2008)
- Honorary Doctorate of Science, University of Toronto http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/honorary-doctorate-utoronto-june2007.html (2007)
- Purpose Prize Judea Pearl and Akbar Ahmed (2006)
- Classic Paper Award, AAAI 2006 AAAI CLASSIC PAPER AWARD (2006)
- Allen Newell Award, Association for Computing Machinery Judea Pearl(2004)
- Pekeris Memorial Lecture, The Weizmann Institute of Science lect82-net (2003)
- Corresponding Member, Spanish Academy of Engineering (2002)
- Lakatos Award, The London School of Economics and Political Science https://www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/blog/2002/04/09/2001-lakatos-award-judea-pearl/ (2001)
- Classic Paper Award, AAAI 2000 AAAI CLASSIC PAPER AWARD (2000)
- IJCAI Research Excellence Award in Artificial Intelligence, International Joint Conference in Artificial Intelligence IJCAI-99 (1999)
- UCLA 81st Faculty Research Lecturer NOTES - UCLA 81st FACULTY RESEARCH LECTURE SERIES (1996)
- Member, National Academy of Engineering (NAE) (1995)
- Fellow, American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) (1990),
- Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (1988),
- RCA Laboratories Achievement Award (1965)
See also
External links
Notes and References
- http://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/pearl_2658896.cfm Judea Pearl – A. M. Turing Award winner
- BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2021). Judea Pearl - Announcement Speech, June 2022.
- Web site: Gold, Virginia . Judea Pearl Wins ACM A.M. Turing Award for Contributions that Transformed Artificial Intelligence . . March 15, 2012. March 15, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120317233913/http://www.acm.org/press-room/news-releases/2012/turing-award-11 . March 17, 2012. ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery today named Judea Pearl of the University of California, Los Angeles the winner of the 2011 ACM A.M. Turing Award for innovations that enabled remarkable advances in the partnership between humans and machines that is the foundation of Artificial Intelligence (AI). . dead.
- 10.1109/MIC.2006.107. Judea Pearl Interview: A Giant of Artificial Intelligence Takes on All-Too-Real Hatred. IEEE Internet Computing. 10. 5. 6–8. 2006. Goth . G.. 9932352.
- Fonda. Daren. September 27, 2003. On the Trail of Daniel Pearl. TIME. July 20, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20031001222839/http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,490640,00.html. dead. October 1, 2003.
- Web site: Who killed Daniel Pearl?. https://web.archive.org/web/20030629230648/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EF28Df02.html. unfit. June 29, 2003. Pepe . Escobar. Pepe Escobar . Asia Times Online. June 28, 2003. Book Review. July 20, 2011.
- News: This Day in Jewish History / Journalist Daniel Pearl murdered in Pakistan by Islamic terrorists. Haaretz.
- Web site: Judea Pearl - A.M. Turing Award Laureate. amturing.acm.org.
- Q&A: A Sure Thing . Leah Hoffmann . . 55 . 6 . 135–136 . 10.1145/2184319.2184347 . 2012. free .
- Web site: International Advisory Board Profiles. 2011. NGO Monitor. July 20, 2011.
- News: Wilkinson. Phaedra. From the community: With My Whole Broken Heart. Chicago Tribune. July 10, 2015.
- Web site: Biography of Dr. Judea Pearl . 2011 . . July 20, 2011. dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110630070829/http://www.danielpearl.org/about_us/Judea_Pearl.html . June 30, 2011.
- News: Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil . Judea. Pearl. Judea Pearl. The Wall Street Journal. February 3, 2009. A15. July 20, 2011.
- Web site: Jonathan Sacks. Judaism: Covenant & Conversation: Against Hate. Israel National News. September 5, 2014.
- Web site: Tragedy and Opportunity: The parents of slain journalist Danny Pearl have devoted their lives to improving Muslim-Jewish relations.. July 12, 2013. Mathew Philips. I turned secular at the age of 11, by divine revelation. [Laughs.] I was standing on the roof of the house my father built, looking down on the street and suddenly it became very clear to me that there is no God..
- Web site: Robots and the Illusion of Free Will – Conversation with Judea Pearl, Rumelhart Prize Winner. The Science Network. Starting from 41:14. July 22, 2011. I'm, of course, prisoner of my upbringing, which means my store of metaphors comes from the Bible and comes from history of the Jewish people. But I don't believe in God. Actually, I know there isn't [a] God..
- News: Fishman Orlins. Susan. The Price of Being Jewish: An Interview with Judea Pearl. Moment. November 2006. Did you pray for Danny’s safe return? No, I don't believe in a God [that] would listen to me. But I do pray every morning. I lay tefillin. I started a year ago. But aren’t you a secular Jew? I'll give you the same answer I gave 10 Muslims who joined me for dinner one Friday night. I said, 'Oh, it's Friday night. I have to do Kiddush.'.
- Amundson. Marlys. Fall 2004. A Profile of Judea Pearl – Computer Science Pioneer, Visionary. UCLA Engineer. 12. 16–17. July 20, 2011.
- Web site: ACM HONORS INNOVATORS WHO CHANGED THE SCIENTIFIC WORLD. April 27, 2004 . Association for Computing Machinery. New York. July 20, 2011.
- Web site: AI pioneer named to Carnegie Corporation's annual great immigrants list | UCLA . June 25, 2024 . UCLA.
- Web site: ASA Fellow Announcement. American Statistical Association. May 12, 2019.
- http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/april-29-2014-NAS-Election.html National Academy of Sciences Members and Foreign Associates Elected
- 10.1109/MIS.2011.64 . AI's Hall of Fame . . 26 . 4 . 5–15 . 2011 . September 4, 2015 . December 16, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111216235804/http://www.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/ComputingNow/homepage/2011/0811/rW_IS_AIsHallofFame.pdf . dead .