Michael Shamos

Timeline

1. 1968–1978

   A Yale Ph.D. in computational geometry

   He earns an A.B. in physics at Princeton in 1968, working under John Wheeler. He enrolls in Yale's computer science department in 1972 and completes a Ph.D. in 1978 with a thesis titled Computational Geometry.

2. 1975–1985

   A computational geometry textbook

   Carnegie Mellon hires him as an assistant professor of computer science and mathematics in 1975. With Franco Preparata he writes Computational Geometry: An Introduction, the first book in the field, which Springer-Verlag publishes in 1985.

3. 1979–1987

   Founding Unilogic and Lexeme

   In 1979, he forms Unilogic, Ltd. to commercialize Scribe, a document production system written by Brian Reid, then a Carnegie Mellon graduate student. In 1984, Unilogic spins out Lexeme Corporation to develop automated tools for source language translation, and the assets of Unilogic are sold in 1987.

4. 1990–1998

   Practicing law at Webb

   With a law degree from Duquesne University earned in 1981, he joins the Webb Law Firm, the largest intellectual property firm in Pittsburgh, in 1990. He handles patent applications and trademark and copyright cases there until he returns to Carnegie Mellon in 1998.

5. 1998–2007

   The Universal Library project

   He returns to Carnegie Mellon in 1998 as Principal Systems Scientist and a director of the Universal Library, a book-scanning project. In 2007, the Universal Library project, with him as a co-director, reports more than 1.5 million scanned books.

6. 2001–2018

   Distinguished Career Professor at Carnegie Mellon

   He is named Distinguished Career Professor at Carnegie Mellon in 2001 and directs the MSIT eBusiness Technology program until it ends in 2018. From 1980 he also serves as statutory examiner of voting systems for Pennsylvania and inspects systems in five other states.

7. 2018

   Founding the MSAII program

   In 2018, he becomes the founding director of Carnegie Mellon's M.S. in Artificial Intelligence and Innovation. His focus in the program is the development of AI applications for new and unexplored markets.

8. As of October 2026

   Theorem discovery at LTI

   He is a Distinguished Career Professor at Carnegie Mellon's Language Technologies Institute and a faculty member in the Software and Societal Systems Department. His research generates and proves new mathematical theorems, particularly in number theory, with systems that automatically produce provable theorems. He teaches AI & Future Markets and The Law of Computer Technology.