Paul Werbos
Also known as Paul John Werbos, Paul J. Werbos
Paul Werbos wrote the 1974 Harvard dissertation that first described training artificial neural networks through backpropagation of errors. He ran the National Science Foundation's neural-network research from 1988 until he retired in February 2015. The IEEE honored him with its Neural Networks Pioneer Award in 1995 and its Frank Rosenblatt Award in 2022. In 2011 the International Neural Network Society gave him its Hebb Award. As of October 2026, he is an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis.
- Now at
- University of Memphis
- Works
- 218
- Citations
- 17,337
- h-index
- 33
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.
Timeline
-
1947
A logic course with Church
He is born in 1947, and while still in middle and high school he takes a graduate logic course from Alonzo Church at Princeton.
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1974
A dissertation on backpropagation
He completes a Harvard doctorate in 1974 with a dissertation that first describes training neural networks through backpropagation of errors.
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1988–2015
Running NSF's neural-network research
He runs neural-network research at the National Science Foundation from 1988 and retires from the agency in February 2015.
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1995
The Neural Networks Pioneer Award
He receives the IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award in 1995 for discovering backpropagation and other basic neural-network learning frameworks.
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2011
The Hebb Award
The International Neural Network Society gives him its Hebb Award in 2011, one of its two highest awards.
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2022
The Frank Rosenblatt Award
The IEEE's Frank Rosenblatt Award goes to him in 2022.
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April 2023
Quantum mechanics as the next revolution
In 2023 he tells IEEE Young Professionals that quantum mechanics will be the next revolution in understanding and controlling nature.
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As of October 2026
An adjunct professor at Memphis
As of October 2026, he is an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis, with research interests in approximate dynamic programming.
Sources and credits
Photo: Rolf Kickuth, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: commons.wikimedia.org. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.
- Paul Werbos - Wikipedia
- Paul Werbos Biography - NSS
- Lifeboat Foundation Bios: Dr. Paul John Werbos
- Paul Werbos
- Welcome to the Werbos World
- Past Recipients - IEEE Computational Intelligence Society
- IEEE Frank Rosenblatt Award - Wikipedia
- Paul John Werbos - Engineering and Technology History Wiki
- Neural Networks and Quantum Physics are the Future: Paul Werbos - Young Professionals
- Paul Werbos - Math Sciences