Biography

Michael A. Arbib

Michael A. Arbib is Professor of Computer Science, Neurobiology and Physiology, as well as of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Psychology at the University of Southern California, which he joined in September of 1986. Born in England in 1940, he grew up in Australia (with a B.Sc.(Hons.) from Sydney University), and received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT in 1963. After five years at Stanford, Arbib became chairman of the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1970, and remained in the Department until August of 1986. Dr. Arbib currently directs a major interdisciplinary project on "Neural Plasticity: Data and Computational Structures", which is integrating studies of learning and neural compensation for disease with research on tools for multi-media database construction, data recovery, visualization and multi-level simulation. His current research focusses on mechanisms underlying the coordination of perception and action. The author of 20 books and the editor of 11 more, Dr. Arbib has most recently edited "The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks", a massive compendium embracing studies in detailed neuronal function, systems models of brain regions, connectionist models of psychology and linguistics, mathematical and biological studies of learning, and technological applications of artificial neural networks.