Particularly notable was his work on space charge between parallel electrodes, and his wartime work on TR-boxes, switches that disconnect the receiver of a radar when it is transmitting and prevent the sensitive receiver from being destroyed by the high power transmitter. At 'Bell Labs' he worked mainly on electron tubes. In 1946 the College of Emporia awarded him an honorary doctorate.Īfter his master's degree he stayed on at MIT as an instructor in electrical engineering until 1928, when he joined Bell Telephone Laboratories. He later did graduate work in physics at Columbia University. He graduated from the College of Emporia, and while also working intermittently at General Electric Company in Schenectady, he went on to earn a Master of Science degree from MIT in 1926. Arthur Samuel was born in 1901 in Emporia, Kansas. Samuel died July 29, 1990, at Stanford Hospital from complications related to Parkinson's disease.Ī pioneer of artificial intelligence research (best known for his program that played championship level checkers), his life spanned a period of broad scientific advancement. Honors and Awards: IEEE Computer Society Pioneer Award, 1987 fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers fellow, American Physical Society fellow, Institute of Radio Engineers fellow, American Institute of Electrical Engineers DSc (Hon.), College of Emporia.

Professional Experience: instructor, electrical engineering, MIT, 1926-1928 Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1928-1946 professor, electrical engineering, University of Illinois, 1946-1949 IBM, 1949-1966 Stanford University: lecturer and research associate, 1966-1982. Education: BS, College of Emporia MS, MIT, 1926 graduate work, physics, Columbia University.

Computer program for checkers