Margaret A. Boden

Digital Library

ACM AAAI Allen Newell Award

United Kingdom - 2017

citation

For contributions to the philosophy and historiography of cognitive science and artificial intelligence, particularly in the study of human creativity.

Prof. Margaret A. Boden has been contributing to the philosophy of AI and cognitive science from the 1960s up to the present day. She has an unusually interdisciplinary background with degrees in medical sciences, philosophy, and psychology, and she integrates these disciplines with AI in her research. Her main contributions include seminal work to define and nurture the area of computational creativity and creative cognition, as well as her work on the history of cognitive science and its computational connections. She also played a leading role in early discussions of the benefits and risks of AI. Her philosophical perspective has enlightened AI during her whole career, bringing an original perspective.

Prof. Boden has been awarded an OBE medal (Order of the British Empire) for services to cognitive science, a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Society for Artificial Life, and the Covey Prize by the International Association for Computing and Philosophy. She is a Life Fellow of AISB, and a Fellow of AAAI, ECCAI, British Academy, and of the Society for Cognitive Science. She holds honorary doctorates from three UK universities and is the holder of the Doctor of Science from the University of Cambridge.

Press Release

2017 ACM - AAAI Allen Newell Award

Margaret A. Boden was honored for contributions to the philosophy and historiography of cognitive science and artificial intelligence, particularly in the study of human creativity. For four decades, Boden has been one of the world’s premiere thought leaders on the intersection of artificial intelligence, cognitive science and the humanities. Through insightful analyses, she was often the first to reveal surprising connections among disciplines, which she then outlined in a series of highly influential books. In two classic books—Artificial Intelligence and Natural Man (1977) and The Creative Mind (1990)—she introduced the idea of creative cognition, which inspired a generation of researchers and laid the foundation of computational creativity as a new subfield of artificial intelligence.

Boden’s two-volume Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science (2006) is a comprehensive survey of interdisciplinary work at the intersection of cognitive science and computation that highlights work in neuroscience, philosophy, biology, linguistics and computation. The book is considered a valuable reference for young researchers to explore what important work has already been undertaken in their field. Mind as Machine also begins with the provocative question: “When is a program not a program?” It is a fitting introduction to Boden, who has been raising important questions about the challenges and risks of artificial intelligence since the beginning of her career. After more than five decades in the field, Boden continues to be both prolific and relevant. Her most recent book AI, Its Nature and Future (2016) was described by Nature magazine as “a masterclass.”

The ACM - AAAI Allen Newell Award is presented to an individual selected for career contributions that have breadth within computer science, or that bridge computer science and other disciplines. The Newell award is accompanied by a prize of $10,000, provided by ACM and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and by individual contributions.

ACM will present the 2016 Software System Award, Grace Murray Hopper Award, Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award, and Allen Newell Award at its annual Awards Banquet on June 24, 2017 in San Francisco, California.