Bernard Meltzer
Bernard Meltzer, a South African-born researcher, helped shape artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh. He taught radar and electronics to military personnel from 1943 before joining Edinburgh's electrical engineering department as a lecturer in 1955. He set up the Metamathematics Unit, which gained an international reputation as a centre for research in artificial intelligence, and co-edited the Machine Intelligence series with Donald Michie. He started the journal Artificial Intelligence in 1970 and led the university's AI department from 1974 to 1977. He died in July 2008, aged 92.
Timeline
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1916–1953
Degrees in Cape Town and London
He is born in South Africa in 1916, takes a bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Cape Town in 1934, and receives a doctorate in mathematical physics from the University of London in 1953.
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1941–1943
Radar teaching and RAF service
He enlists in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1941, and from 1943 he teaches radar and electronics to military personnel at the University of Aberdeen.
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1955
A lectureship in Edinburgh
In 1955 he becomes a lecturer in the electrical engineering department of the University of Edinburgh.
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1964–1972
The Metamathematics Unit
A 1964–65 appointment at the Atlas Computer Laboratory leads him to set up the Metamathematics Unit, which quickly gains an international reputation as a centre for research in artificial intelligence. In 1972 he receives the chair of computational logic.
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1969–1972
The Machine Intelligence series
With Donald Michie, he co-edits the Machine Intelligence series, volumes 4 to 7, from 1969 to 1972.
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1970–1977
A journal and an AI department
In 1970 he starts the journal Artificial Intelligence and edits it until his retirement. In 1974 he becomes the first head of the Department of Artificial Intelligence, a post he holds until 1977.
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1978–1979
Retirement and a Walker award
He retires in December 1978, and in 1979 he receives the first Donald E. Walker Distinguished Service Award.
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July 2008
Death at age 92
He dies in July 2008, aged 92.
Sources and credits
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