Editing Gerald Jay Sussman

{{short description|American computer scientist}} 
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = 
| name              = Gerald Jay Sussman
| honorific_suffix  = 
| image             = Jerry Sussman.jpg
| alt               = Photograph of head of a man wearing glasses and a dark burgundy fez hat
| caption           = Gerald Sussman appearing in a 1986 video recording of the SICP lectures
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age|1947|02|08}}
| birth_place       = US
| death_date        = 
| death_place       = 
| fields            = [[Cognitive science]], [[electrical engineering]], [[computer science]]
| workplaces        = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
| education         = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] ([[Bachelor of Science|SB]]<!-- Correct, per MIT Alumni Association --> 1968, [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] 1973)
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Seymour Papert]]
| doctoral_students = {{plainlist|1=
*[[Elizabeth Bradley (mathematician and rower)|Elizabeth Bradley]]
*[[Ken Forbus|Kenneth D. Forbus]]
*[[Bob Hearn]]
*[[W. Daniel Hillis]]
*[[David A. McAllester]]
*[[Guy L. Steele Jr.]]
*[[Radhika Nagpal]]
}}
| thesis_title      = A Computational Model of Skill Acquisition
| thesis_year       = 1973
| known_for         = [[Artificial intelligence]]<br/>''[[Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs]]'' (SICP)
| awards            = [[IJCAI Computers and Thought Award]] (1981)<br/>[[ACM Fellow]] (1990)
| spouse            = [[Julie Sussman]]
| website           = {{URL|groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs}}
| footnotes         = 
}}

'''Gerald Jay Sussman''' (born February 8, 1947) is the Panasonic Professor of [[Electrical engineering|Electrical Engineering]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT). He has been involved in [[artificial intelligence]] (AI) research at MIT since 1964. His research has centered on understanding the problem-solving strategies used by scientists and engineers, with the goals of automating parts of the process and formalizing it to provide more effective methods of science and engineering education. Sussman has also worked in computer languages, in [[computer architecture]], and in [[Very Large Scale Integration]] (VLSI) design.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/biography.html|title=Biographical sketch of Gerald Jay Sussman|last=Sussman|first=Gerald Jay|date=<!--Undated-->|website=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|access-date=September 9, 2019}}</ref>

==Education==
Sussman attended the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] as an undergraduate and received his [[Bachelor of Science|SB]]<!-- SB is correct term for the degree, as awarded by MIT --> in mathematics in 1968. He continued his studies at MIT and obtained a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in 1973, also in mathematics, under the supervision of [[Seymour Papert]]. His doctoral thesis was titled "A Computational Model of Skill Acquisition" focusing on [[artificial intelligence]] and [[machine learning]], using a computational performance model named ''HACKER''.<ref>{{cite thesis|type=Ph.D.|last=Sussman|first=Gerald|title=A Computational Model of Skill Acquisition|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|year=1973|hdl=1721.1/6894}}</ref>

According to a common story,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kragic |first=Danica |date=October 17, 2018 |title=From active perception to deep learning |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.aav1778 |journal=Science Robotics |language=en |volume=3 |issue=23 |doi=10.1126/scirobotics.aav1778 |pmid=33141734 |s2cid=53020752 |issn=2470-9476}}</ref> in 1966, [[Marvin Minsky]] tasked his student Gerald Jay Sussman to “spend the summer linking a camera to a computer and getting the computer to describe what it saw.”<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Papert |first=Seymour A. |date=July 1, 1966 |title=The Summer Vision Project |url=https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6125 |journal=MIT Libraries – Artificial Intelligence Lab Publications |language=en-US |hdl=1721.1/6125}}</ref> This story was often told to illustrate that the difficulty of computer vision was not apparent to AI researchers in the early days.

==Academic work==
Sussman is a coauthor (with [[Hal Abelson]] and [[Julie Sussman]]) of the introductory computer science textbook ''[[Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs]]'' (SICP). It was used at MIT for several decades, and has been translated into several languages.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

Sussman's contributions to [[artificial intelligence]] include problem solving by debugging almost-right plans, propagation of constraints applied to electrical circuit analysis and synthesis, dependency-based explanation and dependency-based backtracking, and various language structures for expressing problem-solving strategies. Sussman and his former student, [[Guy L. Steele Jr.]], invented the programming language [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme]] in 1975.

Sussman saw that artificial intelligence ideas can be applied to [[computer-aided design]] (CAD). Sussman developed, with his graduate students, sophisticated computer-aided design tools for [[Very Large Scale Integration]] (VLSI). Steele made the first Scheme hardware chips in 1978.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} These ideas and the AI-based CAD technology to support them were further developed in the Scheme chips of 1979 and 1981. The technique and experience developed were then used to design other special-purpose computers. 

Sussman was the principal designer of the [[Stability of the Solar System#Digital Orrery|Digital Orrery]],{{cn|date=April 2025}} a machine designed to do high-precision integrations for [[orbital mechanics]] experiments.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Applegate |first1=James |last2=Douglas |first2=M. |last3=Gursel |first3=Y. |last4=Hunter |first4=P. |last5=Seitz |first5=C. |last6=Sussman |first6=Gerald Jay |title=A Digital Orrery |journal=IEEE Transactions on Computers |date=September 1985 |volume=C-34 |issue=9 |pages=822–831|doi=10.1109/TC.1985.1676638 |s2cid=10002156 }}</ref> The Orrery hardware was designed and built by a few people in a few months.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

Using the Digital Orrery, Sussman has worked with [[Jack Wisdom]] to discover numerical evidence for [[chaos theory|chaotic motions]] in the outer planets. The Digital Orrery machine is now retired at the [[Smithsonian Institution]] in Washington, DC.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Sussman was also the lead designer of the Supercomputer Toolkit, another [[multiprocessor]] computer optimized for evolving of [[ordinary differential equation]]s. The Supercomputer Toolkit was used by Sussman and Wisdom to confirm and extend the discoveries made with the Digital Orrery to include the entire planetary system.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Applegate |first1=James |last2=Douglas |first2=M. |last3=Gursel |first3=Y. |last4=Sussman |first4=Gerald Jay |last5=Wisdom |first5=Jack |title=The Outer Solar System for 200 Million Years |journal=Astronomical Journal |date=July 1986 |volume=92 |pages=176–194|doi=10.1086/114149 |bibcode=1986AJ.....92..176A |hdl=1721.1/6442 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sussman |first1=Gerald Jay |last2=Wisdom |first2=Jack |title=Numerical evidence that the motion of Pluto is chaotic |journal=Science |date=July 1988 |volume=241 |issue=4864 |pages=433–7 |doi=10.1126/science.241.4864.433 |pmid=17792606 |bibcode=1988Sci...241..433S |hdl=1721.1/6038 |s2cid=1398095 |url=ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/1000-1499/AIM-1039.ps |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706013929/ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/1000-1499/AIM-1039.ps |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 6, 2017 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Sussman has pioneered the use of computational descriptions to communicate methodological ideas in teaching subjects in Electrical Circuits and in Signals and Systems. Over the past decade Sussman and Wisdom have developed a subject that uses computational techniques to communicate a deeper understanding of advanced [[classical mechanics]]. In ''Computer Science: Reflections on the Field, Reflections from the Field'',{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} he writes "... computational algorithms are used to express the methods used in the analysis of dynamical phenomena. Expressing the methods in a computer language forces them to be unambiguous and computationally effective. Students are expected to read the programs and to extend them and to write new ones. The task of formulating a method as a computer-executable program and debugging that program is a powerful exercise in the learning process. Also, once formalized procedurally, a mathematical idea becomes a tool that can be used directly to compute results." Sussman and Wisdom, with Meinhard Mayer, have produced a textbook, ''[[Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics]]'' (SICM), to capture these new ideas.

Sussman and Abelson have also been a part of the [[free software movement]], including releasing [[MIT/GNU Scheme]] as [[free software]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/#Licensing |title=MIT/GNU Scheme |website=Free Software Foundation |access-date=September 11, 2019}}</ref> and serving on the board of directors of the [[Free Software Foundation]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fsf.org/about/staff-and-board |title=Staff and Board |author=<!--Unstated, staff writer.--> |date=<!--Undated.--> |website=Free Software Foundation |access-date=September 11, 2019}}</ref>

In 2011, Sussman attended an event in the [[Virgin Islands]], known as the "Mindshift Conference", hosted by [[Jeffrey Epstein]] and [[Al Seckel]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Masters |first1=Kim |title=The Strange Saga of Jeffrey Epstein’s Link to a Child Star Turned Cryptocurrency Mogul |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/strange-saga-jeffrey-epstein-s-link-brock-pierce-1240462/ |access-date=April 30, 2025 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=September 18, 2019}}</ref>

Sussman's work is presented in many videos, such as: with Hal Abelson in a full 20-lecture version of MIT's SICP course,<ref>
{{Cite AV media |people=Sussman, Gerald |date=July 1986 |title=MIT OpenCourseWare: Video Lectures |medium=videotape |language=English |url=http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/video-lectures/ |format= |location=Massachusetts |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |id= |isbn= |oclc= }}</ref> for LispNYC,<ref>
{{Cite AV media |people=Sussman, Gerald |date=January 2016 |title=Flexible Systems, The Power of Generic Operations |medium=videotape |language=English |url=http://vimeo.com/151465912 |access-date=September 11, 2019 |format= |location= |publisher=LispNYC |id= |isbn= |oclc= }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://lispnyc.org/ |title=LispNYC |author=<!--Unstated, staff writer.--> |date=<!--Undated.--> |website=LispNYC |access-date=September 11, 2019}}</ref> at the International Conference on Complex Systems,<ref>
{{Cite AV media |people=Sussman, Gerald |date=June 11, 2002 |title=Formalizing Science |medium=videotape |language=English |url=https://necsi.edu/s/3-sussmanclip.mov<!-- http://necsi.edu/events/iccs/video/iccs2002tuesday/3-sussmanclip.html --> |access-date=September 11, 2019 |format= |location= |publisher=New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) |id= |isbn= |oclc= }}</ref> for [[ArsDigita University]],<ref>{{Cite AV media |people=Sussman, Gerald |date=2001 |title=The Legacy of Computer Science |medium=videotape |language=English |url=http://aduni.org/colloquia/sussman/ |access-date= |format= |location= |publisher= |id= |isbn= |oclc= |archive-date=October 13, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111013181717/http://aduni.org/colloquia/sussman/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and giving the keynote talk at a Strange Loop conference.<ref>
{{Cite AV media |people=Sussman, Gerald |date=September 19, 2011 |title=We Really Don't Know How To Compute! |medium=videotape |language=English |url=https://www.infoq.com/presentations/We-Really-Dont-Know-How-To-Compute/ |access-date= |format= |location= |publisher=InfoQ |id= |isbn= |oclc= }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://thestrangeloop.com/ |title=Strange Loop |author=<!--Unstated, staff writer.--> |date=<!--Undated.--> |website=Strange Loop |access-date=September 11, 2019}}</ref>

==Awards and organizations==
For his contributions to [[computer science education]], Sussman received the [[Association for Computing Machinery]] (ACM) Karl Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award in 1990, and the [[Amar G. Bose]] award for teaching in 1992.<ref name="CSBIO">{{Cite web |title=Gerald Sussman {{!}} MIT CSAIL |url=https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/gerald-sussman |access-date=June 1, 2022 |website=www.csail.mit.edu}}</ref>

{{asof|2025}}, Sussman is the only founding director who is still active on the board of directors of the [[Free Software Foundation]] (FSF).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Staff and Board — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software |url=https://www.fsf.org/about/staff-and-board |access-date=February 10, 2025 |website=www.fsf.org}}</ref>

Sussman is a fellow of the following institutions:
* The [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
* The [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] (AAAS)
* The [[Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence]] (AAAI)
* The [[Association for Computing Machinery]] (ACM)
* The [[Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers]] (IEEE)
* The [[New York Academy of Sciences]] (NYAS)

Sussman is member of the following institutions:
* The [[National Academy of Engineering]] (NAE)
* The [[American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute]] (AWI), 
* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20130202151345/http://www.plads.com/mwa/ Massachusetts Watchmakers-Clockmakers Association] (MWCA) 
* The [http://www.atmob.org/ Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston] (ATMOB) 
* The [[American Radio Relay League]] (ARRL).<ref name="CSBIO"/>

In 2023 he received the IEEE Computer Society’s Taylor L. Booth Education Award for his “inspirational approach to the teaching of computer science through functional programming".<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/insider-membership-news/gerald-jay-sussman-interview/
 | title=Innovations in Education: A Conversation with Gerald Jay Sussman, Taylor L. Booth Education Award Recipient | work=[[IEEE Computer Society]] | date=March 5, 2024| accessdate=March 23, 2024}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Gerald Sussman is married to computer programmer [[Julie Sussman]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://marioaquino.blogspot.com/2011/09/teacher.html|title=The teacher|last=Aquino|first=Mario|date=September 22, 2011|website=Blogger|access-date=September 9, 2019}}</ref>

Sussman is a bonded [[locksmith]], and also does hands-on work with precision [[mechanical watch]] movements, as well as [[amateur telescope making]].<ref name="WatchLect"/> He has given public lectures on the physics and mathematics of watch [[escapement]]s. He is a life member of the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute.<ref name="WatchLect">{{cite web |last1=Sussman |first1=Gerald Jay |title=An Electrical Engineering View of a Mechanical Watch |url=https://techtv.mit.edu/videos/15895-an-electrical-engineering-view-of-a-mechanical-watch |website=MIT ODL Video Services |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=February 9, 2025 |date=May 8, 2003}}</ref>

==Select bibliography==
* Chris Hanson and Gerald Jay Sussman; ''[https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/software-design-flexibility Software Design for Flexibility]'', MIT Press, 2021. ISBN 978-0-262-045490. 
* Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, with Will Farr; ''[https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/functional-differential-geometry Functional Differential Geometry]'', MIT Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-262-01934-7. 
* Alexey Radul and Gerald Jay Sussman; "Revised Report on the Propagator Model", [https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/propagators/ documentation] and [https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/propagators/propagator.tar system], August 2010. 
* Alexey Radul and Gerald Jay Sussman; "The Art of the Propagator," [http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44215 MIT-CSAIL-TR-2009-002]; Abridged version in Proc. 2009 International Lisp Conference, March 2009. 
* ''[https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/structure-and-interpretation-classical-mechanics-second-edition Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics, second edition]'', Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, MIT Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-262-02896-7. 
* "[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/cellgates/cellgates.pdf Cellular Gate Technology]", Thomas F. Knight and Gerald Jay Sussman, Proc. UMC98, First International Conference on Unconventional Models of Computation, Auckland, NZ, January 1998. 
* "[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/yip/learning-2col.pdf Sparse Representations for Fast, One-shot learning]", Kenneth Yip and Gerald Jay Sussman, Proc. of National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, July 1997. A longer version appears as MIT AI Lab Memo #1633, May 1998 
* "[http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6654 A Computational Model for the Acquisition and Use of Phonological Knowledge]", Kenneth Yip and Gerald Jay Sussman, MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 1575, March 1996. 
* "[http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/5929 Amorphous Computing]", Harold Abelson, Don Allen, Daniel Coore, Chris Hanson, George Homsy, Thomas F. Knight, Jr., Radhika Nagpal, Erik Rauch, Gerald Jay Sussman, Ron Weiss, in Communications of the ACM, 43, 5, May 2000. Also as MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 1665, August 1999. 
* "[http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6639 Comparison between subsonic flow simulation and physical measurements of flue pipes]", Panayotis. A. Skordos and Gerald Jay Sussman, Proceedings of ISMA 95, International Symposium on Musical Acoustics, Le Normont, France, July 1995. Also MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 1535, April 1995. 
* "[http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/5961 Chaotic Evolution of the Solar System]", Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, Science, 257, July 3, 1992. 
* "[http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/5974 The Supercomputer Toolkit: A general framework for special-purpose computing]", with A. Berlin, J. Katzenelson, W. McAllister, G. Rozas, G. J. Sussman, and Jack Wisdom, International Journal of High-Speed Electronics, 3, no. 3, pp.&nbsp;337–361, 1992. 
* "[http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6038 Numerical evidence that the motion of Pluto is chaotic]", Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, in Science, 241, July 22, 1988. 
* ''[http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/structure-and-interpretation-computer-programs-second-edition Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs]'', Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman, MIT Press and McGraw-Hill, 1985, second edition 1996, ISBN 0-262-01153-0. (published translations in French, Japanese, Polish, Chinese, Korean, and German).

==See also==
*[[Marvin Minsky]]
*[[Seymour Papert]]
*[[Terry Winograd]]
*[[MDL (programming language)]]
*[[Sussman anomaly]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Official website|groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs}}
*{{MathGenealogy | 20655}}
*[http://mitpress.mit.edu/contributors/gerald-jay-sussman Books] at the [[MIT Press]]

{{Lisp programming language}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sussman, Gerald Jay}}
[[Category:1947 births]]
[[Category:20th-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:21st-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:American computer scientists]]
[[Category:American electrical engineers]]
[[Category:American artificial intelligence researchers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the IEEE]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Free software programmers]]
[[Category:GNU people]]
[[Category:Jewish American scientists]]
[[Category:Lisp (programming language) people]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni]]
[[Category:MIT School of Engineering faculty]]
[[Category:Members of the Free Software Foundation board of directors]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering]]
[[Category:Programming language designers]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery]]