Professor Emeritus of Psychology; Research Professor Emeritus, Psychiatry and Mental Health Research Institute
About
Robert K. Lindsay, Ph.D., professor of psychology in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; research professor in psychiatry in the Medical School; and research professor in the Mental Health Research Institute, retired from active faculty status on August 31, 2004.
Professor Lindsay received his B.S. (1956) and Ph.D. (1961) degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and his M.A. degree (1957) from Columbia University. From 1960-65 he was on the faculty of the University of Texas. He joined the University of Michigan faculty as associate professor and research psychologist in 1965 and was appointed research psychologist in the Mental Health Research Institute in 1967. He was promoted to research scientist in senior research scientist in 1997, professor in 2001, and research professor in 2003. He was also associated with the University's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Center for the Study of Complex Systems.
Since the inception of the field of artificial intelligence, Professor Lindsay has made significant contributions, including extensive review and critical analysis of the field. Early in his career, he modeled the understanding of utterances to help define and solve the problems computers have with understanding natural language--a significant departure from the statistical and syntactical approaches to language processing at the time. Professor Lindsay contributed to expert systems that endow computers with the decision-making capabilities used by human experts, and he collaborated on the DENDRAL project, one of the earliest expert systems and the defining contribution of the field. He was a pioneer in diagrammatic reasoning; one of his key influences was the use of inference by simulation as a basis for using diagrams to understand concepts in mathematics. His recent research uses computer simulations of variations of genetic algorithms to discover possible genetic mechanisms underlying the evolution of complexity.
Professor Lindsay served as chair of SACUA's Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty, and he is a member of the SACUA Civil Liberties Board.
The Regents salute this distinguished scholar by naming Robert K. Lindsay professor emeritus of psychology, research professor emeritus in psychiatry, and research professor emeritus in the Mental Health Research Institute.
