Herbert A. Simon: AI pioneer

Herbert A. Simon was one of the founding fathers of artificial intelligence. Simon, who, along with Allen Newell and J.C. Shaw, wrote the first AI program in 1956, received many honors in his lifetime, including the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1978. Simon was a true renaissance man. He researched human decision-making and problem-solving processes and the implications of those processes for social institutions. Simon's major awards in four areas: psychology, economics, management science and computer science - attest to his breadth of interest and expertise. Simon's impact in the world is no more apparent than at Carnegie Mellon University, where, arguably, he was the most influential person. Simon left behind over 60 years of research and theorems. He also left the computer science world with the heuristic compiler, in which he applied theories and techniques from other disciplines.