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Top 10 Amazing Facts about Judea Pearl

Judea Pearl at the 2013 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems

Judea Pearl was born on September 4^th, 1936 in Tel Aviv in Israel. He is the descendant of Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. He is an Israeli-American scholar and philosopher.

He has gained popularity and reputation globally due to his unmatched contribution in the field of computer science especially the development of artificial intelligence, causality, and Bayesian Networks.

He is a renowned scientist and a professor in the United State married to the late Ruth Pearl who was also an Israeli-American and a software developer.

Below are ten amazing facts about Judea Pearl stemming from his career to his scientific discovery and way of life;

1: Judea is the Developer of Bayesian Networks

The lighting of the Menorah.

In 1985, Judea invented Bayesian Networks which is a probabilistic graphical model.

The Bayesian network is an ideal model that predicts the probabilities of given sets of variables and their conditional dependencies.

His work led to the invention of machines that could cope with uncertainty.

2: His Son was Kidnapped and Beheaded

The son of Judea, Daniel Pearl a journalist in America was kidnapped and beheaded by Muslim extremists in Pakistan.

This happened on 16^th May 2002, while he was working for Wall Street Journalist. Judea founded the Daniel Pearl Foundation as a result of his death.

The organization received awards in the year 2002 and 2003 consecutively.  The foundation aims to bring to an understanding between the Muslims and Jewish as well as promote honest reporting.

During the seventh commemoration of his death, Judea wrote an article in the wall street journal giving its head as ‘Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil.

3: He Won the A.M Turning Award

In 2011, Judea was awarded the Turning Award by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).

It is the highest award of distinction the computer science referred to as the Nobel Prize of Computing.

He was awarded the prize because of his immense contribution to Artificial Intelligence by developing calculus for probabilistic and causal reasoning. He has been awarded other awards such as Harvey Prize and Rumelhart prize all in 2011.

4. Judea is a Renowned Author

Judea has authored more than 350 scientific articles. In his contribution to computer science, he has authored three books in that field.

In 1984, he authored his first scientific book called ‘Heuristic’. In 1984 he authored Probabilistic Reasoning. Judea is championed for developing the theory of causal and counterfactual inference that is based on structural models.

He explains the theory in the book called Causality. In 2018 he published ‘The Book of Why’ the new science of cause and effects.

5. He Began his career in the Israel Defense Force

Judea was a member of the Israel Defense Force and later joined a group called Kibbutz before joining college to pursue his career in science.

Due to his passion and skills in mathematics, smart people advised him to go to college and further his education. In 1956, he joined the Israel Institute of Technology and studied electronic engineering in Technion.

In 1960, he moved to the United States to do post graduate and graduated with a Master’s degree in Physics from Rutgers University. He also graduated with a Ph.D. degree in trial Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

He is a member of the National Academy for Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences and he’s among the founders of the American Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

He is a Chancellor Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

6. Judea Co-Edited a Book with his Wife

Judea and his wife Ruth co-edited the book ‘I Am Jewish’ in 2004. This was after the decapitation of their son Daniel Pearl by terrorists.

The book gives insights into the personal reflections that were inspired by the last words of Daniel Pearl. It recounts the steaming levels of insecurity and injustices from the Muslims to Jewish.

In 2004, the book ‘I Am Jewish’ became the winner of the National Jewish book award.

7. He is a Big Brain Behind Artificial Intelligence

Judea a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles for a long time has impacted positively working on artificial intelligence.

His work on artificial intelligence led to the creation of thinking machines that make decisions and cope with uncertainty.

This formed the foundation for the invention of Google’s driverless cars and the iPhone’s Siri speech recognition technology.

His contribution to artificial intelligence led to his induction into the Electronic Engineering Hall of Fame in 2008 and received the Benjamin Franklin medal in computer and cognitive science from Franklin Institute.

8. His Hobby was Music

Apart from his venture into the academic field, Judea found comfort and a hobby in playing music and singing.

This made him honored by the music industry and his peers.

9. Judea Developed Causal Inference in Statistics

Apart from the field of computer science and engineering, Judea has had an input in statistics.

In 2000 he presents the book Causality: models, reasoning, and inference which lay a foundation for causal inference in the field of statistics, epidemiology, and computer science.

It is at this point that he developed the theory of Causal and Counterfactual Inference based on the structural model.

10. He Did Not Believe in God

From his religious perspective, Judea does not believe in God. He turned secular at the age of 11 and believed there isn’t a God.

He received the revelation that there is no God when he was standing on his father’s roof while looking down on the street and it became clear that there isn’t God.

He however believes in the traditions of the Jewish including daily prayers, Kiddush on Friday nights, and Tefillin. According to the songs, holidays, and prayers, he expects that the Jewish will return to Israel.

Judea Pearl has placed a significant contribution to the field of computer science, statistics, and engineering. His knowledge, talent, and participation in present-day technology are unmatched.

His passion for sciences right from authoring many books and articles will be felt in years. Being among the founder and laying a base from which Artificial Intelligence growth is established is key for future development in technology.

His efforts have been rewarded after receiving more than six global awards and building a reputation as a computer scientist and a philosopher.