Stanford Pioneers in Science series presents Daphne Koller, Professor of Computer Science.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 7:30 pm / Cubberly Auditorium
This series of events celebrate the lives and contributions of Stanford faculty members who have been awarded Nobel Prizes, National Medals of Science or Technology, and MacArthur Fellowships.
Each evening will be introduced by a distinguished colleague of the prizewinner, who will put the scientist's accomplishments in context. Then the prizewinner will be joined by interviewer Paul Costello for a wide-ranging conversation about the honoree's discovery, professional career, values, and advice for aspiring scientists. Plenty of time will be allowed at the conclusion of each event for questions to be posed by members of the audience.
This series is your chance to engage with some of the most consequential thinkers of our day—people who have helped to shape the scientific, technological, and economic fabric of our modern world.
The Stanford Pioneers in Science Series is sponsored by the Stanford Historical Society, School of Medicine, the Hoover Institution, Office of Public Affairs and Stanford Continuing Studies.
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DAPHNE KOLLER
Professor of Computer Science
Daphne Koller won a 2004 MacArthur Fellowship for her creativity in the area of artificial intelligence. Her research on Bayesian methods, a once obscure branch of probability theory, has been called by Technology Review "one of the 10 emerging technologies that will change your world" because of the potential it offers for machines to understand the world and make accurate predictions using incomplete knowledge. This past April she was awarded the first-ever $150,000 ACM-Infosys Foundation Award for making computers "intelligent." She also was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House in 1999. She received a PhD from Stanford where she earned the Computer Science Department's award for the best thesis in 1994.
Daphne Koller's scientific creativity and achievements will be presented by her colleague, Stanford Professor of Computer Science, Sebastian Thrun, best known for leading two student teams to first and second places in the DARPA $2 million Grand Challenge robot races in 2005 and 2007 respectively.
STANFORD PIONEERS IN SCIENCE SERIES: 2008 — 2009
FALL QUARTER 2008
Sidney Drell, who won a MacArthur Fellowship for his contributions to theoretical physics and international arms control (October 21)
Robert Sapolsky, who won a MacArthur Fellowship for research that revolutionized our understanding of physical and emotional stress (November 12)
WINTER QUARTER 2009
Carl Djerassi, who won the National Medal of Science whose research led to the birth control pill, and the National Medal of Technology for new approaches to pest control (January 14)
Daphne Koller, who won a MacArthur Fellowship for extraordinary advancements in the next generation of computer technology (February 11)
Burton Richter, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering a new subatomic particle, taking us a step closer to understanding what the universe is made of (March 4)
SPRING QUARTER 2009
Kenneth Arrow, who won the Nobel Prize for his contributions to economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory (April 15)
Paul Berg, who won the Nobel Prize for research that laid the groundwork for recombinant DNA technology (May 20)