Michael Arbib

Michael A. Arbib (* 1940 in England ) is an English neuroscientist , computer scientist and mathematician .

Life

Arbib grew up in Australia and studied mathematics at the University of Sydney (Bachelor 1960), and received his doctorate in 1963 from MIT with Henry McKean on stochastic processes ( Hitting and Martingale Characterizations of One-Dimensional Diffusions ). He then spent five years at Stanford University and from 1970 to 1986 Chairman of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst . He then went to the University of Southern California (USC), where he is currently the Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science (as well as Biology, Neuroscience, Electrical Engineering, Psychology, etc.) and Director of the USC Brain Project.

Arbib has been known for an early interdisciplinary approach to neuroinformatics since the 1960s , when this discipline was only rudimentary. An early influence was Norbert Wiener's book Cybernetics and the classic works of Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts . He sees something fundamentally different in the brain than a computer and examines the analogies and differences both with abstract mathematical methods and with detailed examination of neural networks. In particular, he examines the interaction between motor and perception-related functional units (“schemes”). He already outlined his program in his 1964 book Brains, Machines and Mathematics (based on lectures at the University of New South Wales ).

Works

Brains, Machines and Mathematics , McGraw Hill 1964, 2nd edition 1987, ISBN 0-387-96539-4
Beyond the Mirror: Biology and Culture in the Evolution of Brain and Language , 2005, ISBN 0-19-514993-9
The Metaphorical Brain - an introduction to cybernetics as artificial intelligence and brain theory , Wiley Interscience 1972
The Metaphorical Brain Vol. 2 - Neural networks and beyond , Wiley Interscience, 1989
Publisher: The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks 2nd Edition, MIT Press 2002
Editor with Jeffrey Grethe Computing the Brain: A Guide to Neuroinformatics 2001
with Alfredo Weitzenfeld, Amanda Alexander: The neural simulation language: a system for brain modeling , MIT Press 2002
with Peter Erdi, Janos (John) Szentagothai: Neural Organization: Structure, Function, and Dynamics , MIT Press 1997
with John Szentagothai: Conceptual models of neural organization , MIT Press 1975
with others: From Schema Theory to Language
with Mary B. Hesse: The Construction of Reality , Cambridge Studies in Philosophy 1986 (Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh)
In Search of the Person: Philosophical Explorations in Cognitive Science 1985
Computers and the Cybernetic Society , Academic Press 1984
with Kfoury, Moll: A Basis for Theoretical Computer Science , Springer 1981
Arrows, Structures, and Functors: The Categorical Imperative
Theories of abstract automata , Prentice Hall
Algebraic Theory of Machines, Languages and Semigroups 1968

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Arbib, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Arbib, Michael A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English neuroscientist and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH	1940
PLACE OF BIRTH	England