EECS professor Michael Jordan named to Royal Society

Michael Jordan, UC Berkeley’s Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and of Statistics, is among 10 foreign members elected today to the Royal Society, a prestigious honor accorded to researchers who have made “exceptional contributions to science.”

Jordan, one of the world’s leading figures in machine learning, was cited for his work on statistical inference and continuous optimization. He has worked on probabilistic graphical models, with applications to problems in computational biology, information retrieval and signal processing.

In 2016, using the headline “Who is the Michael Jordan of Computer Science?,” Science magazine identified Jordan as the most influential computer scientist worldwide.

The Royal Society in London, founded in 1660, is the world’s oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. In addition to the foreign members, the society also named 52 new fellows and one honorary fellow for a total of 63 new members announced today.

Sir Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society, acknowledged the backdrop of COVID-19 in the announcement.

“The global pandemic has demonstrated the continuing importance of scientific thinking and collaboration across borders,” said Smith. “Our new Fellows and Foreign Members are all at the forefronts of their fields from molecular genetics and cancer research to tropical open ecosystems and radar technology. It is an absolute pleasure and honour to have them join us.”

Election to the Royal Society is among numerous career honors for Jordan. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received the IEEE John von Neumann Medal, the David Rumelhart Prize and the ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award.