PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Stott Parker

Also known as Douglass Stott Parker Jr.

Stott Parker was a UCLA computer scientist whose data mining research reached into neuroscience and bioinformatics. A Princeton mathematics graduate with a 1978 Illinois doctorate, he joined the UCLA Computer Science Department in 1979 and stayed there until he retired in 2016. In the early 2000s, he helped create UCLA's Center for Computational Biology and Center for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics, and he later coauthored the 2011 Cognitive Atlas paper on a knowledge base for cognitive neuroscience. His 2014 BioData Mining paper described ViVA, a system for exploring hypotheses in neuropsychiatric data. He died in 2022 in Eugene, Oregon.

Born
1952
Died
2022
Badges

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 1952–1978

    Princeton and Illinois degrees

    Born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1952, he takes to mathematics and language early and graduates cum laude from Princeton with an A.B. in mathematics in 1974. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign he completes an M.S. in 1976 and a Ph.D. in 1978, with David Kuck as his doctoral advisor.

  2. 1978–1979

    From Grenoble to UCLA

    A postdoctoral fellowship at the Université de Grenoble in France follows his doctorate in 1978. In 1979, he joins the UCLA Computer Science Department as an assistant professor.

  3. 2000–2005

    Vice Chair for Graduate Affairs

    From 2000 to 2005, he serves as the Computer Science Department's Vice Chair for Graduate Affairs. When the dot-com crash drives up applications and graduate enrollment, he implements a series of changes to fit more students and adapt classes.

  4. 2000s

    Data mining for neuroscience

    In the early 2000s, he starts to focus his research on data mining applications for neuroscience. He holds important roles in creating two NIH-funded UCLA centers, the Center for Computational Biology and the Center for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics, and is integral to forming the university-wide Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Bioinformatics.

  5. 2011

    The Cognitive Atlas

    In 2011, he is one of nine coauthors, with Russell Poldrack, Yolanda Gil, Robert Bilder and others, of the Frontiers in Neuroinformatics paper that introduces the Cognitive Atlas. The paper describes an open collaborative knowledge base for cognitive neuroscience, and he is listed with the UCLA Department of Computer Science.

  6. 2014

    The ViVA exploration system

    In 2014, he publishes "Hypothesis exploration with visualization of variance" in BioData Mining with Eliza Congdon and Robert M. Bilder. The paper presents ViVA, a system for exploratory data analysis of data from the Consortium for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics studies at UCLA, built on VISOVA, a combination of visualization and analysis of variance.

  7. 2016

    Retiring from UCLA

    He retires from UCLA in 2016 after a career that began in 1979. Afterward, he helps publish the unfinished literary works of his late father, classics professor Douglass Parker of the University of Texas at Austin.

  8. 2022

    Death in Eugene, Oregon

    He dies in Eugene, Oregon, in 2022 at the age of 69, a professor emeritus of computer science at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.

Career

  1. 1979–2022University of California, Los AngelesAssistant Professor, Professor Emeritus
  2. 1978–1979University of GrenoblePostdoctoral Fellow

Education

  1. 1978University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignPhD
  2. 1976University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignM.S.
  3. 1974Princeton UniversityA.B.

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. Universities keep AI researchers for a median of 6 years, compared with 2 years at frontier labsIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. Across 15,811 dated work stays (6,529 people), median role tenure runs from 6 years at universities to 2 years at frontier labs. We compare all five organization types, starting decades from the 1970s to the 2020s, and the organizations that keep people longest.
  4. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Stott Parker - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. In Memoriam: Douglass Stott Parker Jr., Professor Emeritus of Computer Science | UCLA Samueli School Of Engineering samueli.ucla.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. D. Stott Parker | UCLA Samueli School Of Engineering samueli.ucla.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. The Cognitive Atlas: Toward a Knowledge Foundation for Cognitive Neuroscience - PMC pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. The cognitive atlas: toward a knowledge foundation for cognitive neuroscience | Information Sciences Institute isi.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Hypothesis exploration with visualization of variance - PMC ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. In Memoriam: Douglass Stott Parker Jr., Professor Emeritus of Computer Science | CS SAMUELI cs.ucla.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.