PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Kevin Bowyer

Also known as Kevin Wilson Bowyer, Kevin W. Bowyer

Kevin Bowyer is a computer scientist whose research spans machine learning in computer vision, biometrics, and data mining. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science at Duke in 1980 and joined Notre Dame from the University of South Florida in 2001 to chair its computer science and engineering department. In 2002, he coauthored SMOTE, a method that generates synthetic examples for underrepresented cases in machine-learning data. In 2012, he and Sam Fenker reported that the false non-match rate in iris recognition rises over time, and he became an IAPR Fellow for work in computer vision, pattern recognition, and biometrics. He joined FaceTec's advisory board by 2017, became an AAAS Fellow in 2019, and was named among the coauthors recognized when the inaugural 2026 IJCAI-JAIR Test of Time Award honored the SMOTE paper; as of October 2026, he is Notre Dame's Schubmehl-Prein Family Professor Emeritus.

Works
599
Citations
61,678
h-index
76

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1980

    A computer science doctorate

    He earns a Ph.D. in computer science from Duke University in 1980.

  2. 2001

    Chairing Notre Dame's department

    He joins Notre Dame from the University of South Florida in summer 2001 and becomes chair of its computer science and engineering department.

  3. 2002

    SMOTE for imbalanced data

    In 2002, he coauthors “SMOTE: Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique” with Nitesh V. Chawla, Lawrence O. Hall, and W. Philip Kegelmeyer; the method generates synthetic examples for underrepresented cases in machine-learning data.

  4. 2012

    Iris recognition and IAPR

    In 2012, Bowyer and Sam Fenker report that the false non-match rate in iris recognition rises over time. He becomes an IAPR Fellow for contributions to computer vision, pattern recognition, and biometrics.

  5. By 2017

    FaceTec advisory board

    By 2017, he joins FaceTec's advisory board.

  6. 2019

    An AAAS Fellowship

    He becomes an AAAS Fellow in 2019 for contributions to computer vision, pattern recognition, biometrics, object recognition, and data science.

  7. 2026

    A Test of Time Award

    The inaugural IJCAI-JAIR Test of Time Award recognizes the 2002 SMOTE paper in 2026 and includes Bowyer among its recognized coauthors.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor emeritus at Notre Dame

    As of October 2026, he is the Schubmehl-Prein Family Professor Emeritus at Notre Dame. His research areas include biometrics, machine learning in computer vision, data mining, and pattern recognition.

Sources and credits

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  1. Kevin Bowyer - Computer Science and Engineering cse.nd.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Notre Dame ReSource: Biometrics Research news.nd.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. SMOTE: Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique cs.cmu.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Chawla and co-authors receive international award for research with lasting impact on artificial intelligence data-ai-computing.nd.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. New Notre Dame research raises questions about iris recognition systems news.nd.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Chronological List of IAPR Fellows – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Intellectual Property Expert Joins FaceTec Board of Advisors prweb.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. Notre Dame professor named fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science news.nd.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.