Debye Award for Tom Mitchell

 

Jaap van den Herik

IKAT, Universiteit Maastricht

 

On January 11, 2002 at the occasion of the Dies Natalis of the Universiteit Maastricht, Professor Tom Mitchell will receive the Debye Award for his eminent research performances in the domain of Machine Learning. Mitchell can be considered the founder of Machine Learning Research. His Ph.D. thesis, titled Version spaces: an approach to concept learning appeared in 1978 and thereafter a continuous stream of highly-qualified publications has been produced by him and his colleagues.

 

Peter Debye-prize 2002 on Knowledge Engineering

 

Below we provide you with some information on the Debye prize.

 

The Universiteit Maastricht has been given the opportunity of awarding the Peter Debye-prize 2002. The prize is an award of appreciation for scientific work in the domain of Knowledge Engineering and consists of an amount of Dfl. 20,000.-. The funds for the Peter Debye-prize are provided by the Edmond Hustinx Foundation in Maastricht. The prize is named after the physicist Peter J.W. Debye (1884-1966), a native of Maastricht, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1936.

 

The prize will be presented for the tenth time on January 11th, 2002 to Tom Mitchell who is considered to have made a fundamental contribution to research in the domain of Knowledge Engineering, in particular in Artificial Intelligence (specifically in Machine Learning). The contribution is rooted in one of the exact disciplines of Computer Science (a prerequisite) and is supposed to have a wider and interdisciplinary impact (also a prerequisite).

 

The Jury who proposed Mitchell as to whom the Debye 2002 Prize should be awarded consisted of prof.dr.  B.J. Wielinga (chair, UvA), prof.dr. J-J. Meyer (UU), and prof.dr. M. Gyssens (LUC and dean of the School of Information Technology at the tUL). (LUC stands for Limburg Universitair Centre and tUL for transnational University Limburg.)

 

As a courtesy to the recipient the Institute for Knowledge and Agent Technology (IKAT) organizes on January 10, 2002 a Machine Learning Day dedicated to Tom Mitchell. The day is organized in close cooperation with the University, the Edmond Hustinx Foundation, and the School of SIKS.