URCS (logo)



Home
directions
news
Department
ugrad program
grad program
courses
Research
AI
systems
theory
tech reports
talks/events
facilities
People
faculty
staff
grads
undergrads
alumni
others
U of R
related depts.

Henry E. Kyburg Jr.

The Department of Computer Science acknowledges the death of Henry Kyburg, Jr., one of its most illustrious members, with great sadness and sense of loss. 

Henry joined our department as a cross-appointed faculty member in 1986, when he was already a famed philosopher of science and epistemology, holding the position of Burbank Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy at our University. 

Both in philosophy and computer science, his focal interest was in uncertain inference.  In particular, he developed in great depth an approach to uncertain inference founded on the use of interval-valued evidential probabilities, and on a probabilistic principle of acceptance.  His goals were not only theoretical, but also thoroughly practical, for example in his efforts towards building an assistant that would learn from samples and would be capable of both statistical computations and uncertain inference based on general knowledge.  His work is characterized by an unerring clarity of thought, a profound scholarly command of the literature and intellectual currents in formal philosophy, epistemology and computational approaches to uncertain inference, a sharp critical eye in his assessments of the uncertain inference landscape, and a high-octane, unflagging creative energy in the pursuit of his scientific goals. 

Among his numerous books and other scholarly writings, many are standard references and indispensable to scholars and researchers in philosophy of science, epistemology and uncertain inference.  Examples of his best-known titles are Probability and Inductive Logic (1970), The Logical Foundations of Statistical Inference (1974), Epistemology and Inference (1983), and Uncertain Inference (with Choh Man Teng, 2001).  Among his many honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, and election as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Science, and the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. 

Henry Kyburg was a man of great breadth, who matriculated in chemical engineering before entering philosophy, began his teaching career as an assistant professor of mathematics, added computer science to his expertise in mid-career, and at the same time ran a cattle farm with his wife Sarah, and pursued vigorous sports such a hockey, tennis and scuba diving throughout most of his life.  In the last 8 years, he also managed to hold not only his Rochester positions, but also spend part of his time as Research Scientist and Pace Eminent Scholar at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Florida.  He was a tremendous asset and valued friend to colleagues and students in both places, and will be remembered with deep appreciation and fondness. 


Maintained by Marty Guenther.  Last change: May 15, 2008
Please report problems with the server to www@cs.rochester.edu.