Leonard Uhr

Timeline

1. 1949–1957

   Psychology at Princeton and Michigan

   He graduates from Princeton with a BA in psychology in 1949, holds a Fulbright scholarship from 1949 to 1950, and earns master's degrees in philosophy from the University of Brussels and Johns Hopkins University in 1951. In 1957, he completes a PhD in psychology at the University of Michigan under E. Lowell Kelly, with a dissertation titled Personality Changes during Marriage.

2. 1960–1965

   Mental Health Research Institute

   From 1961 to 1965, he chairs Psychological Sciences at the University of Michigan's Mental Health Research Institute, and he becomes an associate professor of psychology at Michigan in 1963. He also consults for the Systems Development Corporation and the RAND Corporation from 1960 to 1965.

3. 1963–1973

   A pattern recognition program

   In 1963, he and Charles Vossler write "A Pattern Recognition Program That Generates, Evaluates, and Adjusts Its Own Operators", reprinted in Computers and Thought, edited by Edward Feigenbaum and J. Feldman. He edits the collection Pattern Recognition in 1966 and publishes Pattern Recognition, Learning, and Thought in 1973.

4. 1965–1992

   Professor at Wisconsin

   He moves to the University of Wisconsin faculty in 1965 as one of the initial members of its Computer Sciences Department, and helps start the department's curriculum and research in artificial intelligence. A professor of computer sciences until 1992, he founds and leads the AI group and the AI lab.

5. 1972–1986

   Neuroscience and the AI lab

   He helps establish Wisconsin's interdepartmental Neuroscience program and serves on its faculty from 1972 to 1983. From 1977 to 1978, he is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at University College London; he co-directs the Image Processing Lab from 1980 to 1983 and directs the AI lab from 1982 to 1986.

6. 1973–1985

   Doctoral students at Wisconsin

   He serves as PhD major professor for 20 students, many of whom go on to contribute to artificial intelligence. In 1973, he advises Myron Krueger's dissertation Computer Controlled Responsive Environments, and in 1985 he co-advises Patrick Hanrahan's dissertation Topological Shape Models with Antony O. W. Stretton.

7. 1987–1994

   Books on parallel vision and AI

   His research centers on computer perception and learning and on parallel computer architectures for artificial intelligence and computer vision. In 1987, he writes Multi-Computer Architectures for Artificial Intelligence and edits Parallel Computer Vision, and in 1994 he and Vasant Honavar edit Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks: Steps Toward Principled Integration.

8. 1992–2000

   Emeritus professor in Madison

   He retires from teaching in 1992 and stays active in research and publishing as an emeritus professor of computer sciences. Elected a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence in 1995, he declines the honor out of modesty. He dies at his home in Madison in October 2000, at 73.