Computer Science professor receives Herbert A. Simon award

Computer Science Professor Melanie Mitchell received the Herbert A. Simon Award by the New England Complex Systems Institute for her prolific contributions to complex systems science and artificial intelligence. The Herbert A. Simon Award is presented to researchers who have made important lifetime contributions to the field of complex systems science. 

The award ceremony was held during the International Conference on Complex Systems July 27 - 31, 2020. Her current research focuses on conceptual abstraction, analogy-making, and visual recognition in artificial intelligence systems.

Professor Mitchell is the author or editor of six books and numerous scholarly papers in the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and complex systems. Her book Complexity: A Guided Tour won the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Award and was named by Amazon.com as one of the ten best science books of 2009. Professor Mitchell’s latest book is Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans.

Dr. Mitchell originated the Santa Fe Institute’s Complexity Explorer platform, which offers online courses and other educational resources related to the field of complex systems. Her online course “Introduction to Complexity” has been taken by over 25,000 students, and is one of Course Central’s “top fifty online courses of all time.”