Judea Pearl, an emeritus professor of computer science at the University of California at Los Angeles, has won the 2011 A.M. Turing Award, considered to be a computing honor equivalent to a Nobel Prize.
The award, announced today by the Association for Computing Machinery, includes a $250,000 prize. Mr. Pearl was honored for work that has helped computers learn to make decisions in uncertain situations. His artificial-intelligence research laid the foundation for improved speech-recognition tools, genetic counseling, and other technologies.
Vinton G. Cerf, a 2004 Turing Award recipient, said in an association statement that Mr. Pearl’s accomplishments have “redefined the term ‘thinking machine.’”
Mr. Pearl is the father of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in 2002. He serves as president of the foundation established in his son’s memory.
[Creative Commons licensed Flickr photo by ell brown]
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/5123583143/" title="Bletchley Park - Hut 8 - Alan Turing Way by ell brown, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4005/5123583143_22d53abd8e_m.jpg” width="240" height="180" alt="Bletchley Park - Hut 8 - Alan Turing Way"></a>
