John M. Hollerbach

Timeline

1. 1968–1978

   A PhD under David Marr

   Born in Marktheidenfeld, Germany, to Hungarian refugees, he earns a BS in chemistry at the University of Michigan in 1968 and works as an IBM chemist from 1969 to 1971 while taking AI courses through Syracuse University. At the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, he works with Patrick Winston and earns an SM in computer vision in 1975. His 1978 MIT PhD, advised by David Marr, studies human motor control through handwriting, and he gets a robot to write like his model.

2. 1981–1987

   The Year of the Robot

   In 1981, he co-founds the Year of the Robot program at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to jump-start serious robotics research, and he coauthors its sourcebook, Robot Motion: Planning and Control, with Michael Brady, Matthew Mason, Tomás Lozano-Pérez and Timothy Johnson. In 1983, he helps start the International Journal of Robotics Research and the International Symposium of Robotics Research. From 1981 to 1987, he works with Stephen Jacobsen and John Wood of the University of Utah on the Utah/MIT Dexterous Hand, a 16-joint, four-finger hand driven by 32 artificial tendons.

3. 1982–1989

   Professor at MIT

   He joins the MIT faculty in 1982 as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and becomes an associate professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences in 1985. The National Science Foundation gives him a Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1984, and he becomes a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research in 1988.

4. 1989–1994

   A robotics chair at McGill

   In 1989, he leaves MIT for McGill University, where he holds the NSERC/CIAR Industrial Chair in Robotics in mechanical and biomedical engineering until 1994. He hires Martin Buehler as junior chair and forms a joint laboratory with Ian Hunter that works on new actuator materials and motor designs.

5. 1994–2012

   The Treadport at Utah

   He joins the University of Utah in 1994 as a professor in the School of Computing and research professor of mechanical engineering, and he becomes an IEEE Fellow in 1996. In 2002, he is a lead researcher on Utah's Treadport, a virtual reality cave where users walk on a treadmill while a tether at the lower back measures their position, and his team is in the first year of a five-year, $4 million National Science Foundation grant. By 2012, he tests the TreadPort in a pilot study with patients who have partial spinal cord injuries.

6. 2000–2012

   Editor of IJRR

   In 2000, he succeeds Mike Brady as editor of the International Journal of Robotics Research and expands it to 14 issues a year. He receives a Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society in 2012.

7. 2020

   The Saridis Leadership Award

   At the 2020 IEEE ICRA awards ceremony, he receives the IEEE RAS George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation for foundational research on robot calibration and for leadership and service in publications, conferences and society management.

8. As of October 2026

   Professor emeritus at Utah

   He is a professor emeritus in the University of Utah's Kahlert School of Computing and a member of the University of Utah Robotics Center. His research covers robotics, virtual environments and human motor control.