UC San Diego Alumnus Honors Cognitive Science Pioneers with Endowed Chairs

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• Jade Griffin- [email protected]

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The University of California San Diego, home of the world's first Department of Cognitive Science, will further expand its leadership in the field thanks to a $4 million gift establishing what will collectively be known as the Glushko Chairs in Cognitive Science. UC San Diego alumnus Robert J. Glushko, Ph.D. and Pamela Samuelson established the four endowed faculty chairs in honor of transformational scholars whose work shaped both modern cognitive science and Glushko's own career.

When Glushko earned his doctoral degree from UC San Diego in 1979, his thesis committee included David Rumelhart, Donald Norman, Jay McClelland and Jeff Elman, four of the world's foremost cognitive science thought leaders. Their work is widely regarded for setting the foundation for learning models and AI technology used today.

Glushko and Samuelson have established The Robert J. Glushko '79 Chair in Sensemaking and Organizing, in addition to The David Rumelhart Chair in Cognitive Science, The Donald Norman Chair in Cognitive Science and The Jay McClelland Chair in Cognitive Science. The new chairs add to an existing faculty chair which was established in honor of Elman after his death in 2018 - the Jeff Elman Chancellor's Endowed Chair in Cognitive Science.

Glushko credits these mentors with shaping his success in industry and academia. After completing his Ph.D. at UC San Diego, Glushko entered industry, where he built and sold multiple companies, developing early digital publishing technology and online commerce infrastructures. In 2002, he returned to academia. He serves as an adjunct full professor in UC Berkeley's Cognitive Science Program, which he joined in 2017 after 15 years at the university's School of Information.

"I have been told, more than once, that I had the most star-studded thesis committee in the history of cognitive science," said Glushko. "These four individuals shaped my whole trajectory. I wanted to make sure these cognitive science greats get the recognition they deserve, while also fueling the future of the field at UC San Diego."

Endowed chairs provide permanent and sustained support for faculty with annual funding for chair holders' scholarly activities, salaries, graduate fellowships and more. Endowed chairs are one of the highest recognitions that can be awarded to faculty, and they play a vital role in recruiting and retaining top scientists to UC San Diego.

"UC San Diego is widely regarded as one of the top academic institutions for cognitive science, and it is home to the world's first dedicated department in the field," said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. "This extraordinary investment from alumnus Bob Glushko and Pamela Samuelson honors the remarkable scholars who defined the field and set the foundation for AI technology, while ensuring that UC San Diego continues to lead the next generation of discovery."

Each chair will support a faculty member advancing the innovative, interdisciplinary research ethos of these respected scholars:

• The Robert J. Glushko '79 Chair in Sensemaking and Organizing will provide funding for a cognitive scientist who studies sensemaking and organizing, or how people and systems create and discover meaningful structure in complex environments.
• The David Rumelhart Chair in Cognitive Science will support a cognitive scientist who is making contemporary contributions to the theoretical foundations of human cognition.
• The Donald Norman Chair in Cognitive Scienceis designated to support a cognitive scientist with a focus on design cognition, who may have an affiliation with The Design Lab at UC San Diego.
• The Jay McClelland Chair in Cognitive Sciencewill support a scientist focused on understanding the underlying processes that give rise to human cognitive abilities, integrating insights from neural, behavioral and/or computational modeling approaches.

"Bob has long been a friend and champion of our department specifically, and the field of cognitive science as a whole," said Bradley Voytek, chair of the Department of Cognitive Science. "We like to have Bob back on campus whenever we can get him. He gives so much of himself: he's come back and taught and mentored our students and faculty, he gives guest lectures and he is a member of our Cognitive Science Alumni Advisory Board. This is the largest gift of this kind in our Department's nearly 40-year history. In a world suffused with the growing influence of artificial intelligence, where we're interacting more and more with technologies that influence how we think, and how we interact with the world and one another, it's clear that Cognitive Science is the future. Bob's gift helps us build toward a better version of that future."

Recognizing the 'Giants' of Cognitive Science

Rumelhart, who served as Glushko's thesis advisor, pioneered neural network learning models in the 1980s and co-authored foundational texts with McClelland, who currently serves as the Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences and professor of psychology at Stanford University.

Rumelhart passed away from a degenerative neurological illness in the early 2000s, but he is widely regarded as a father of current AI technology. Geoffrey Hinton, who received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on AI, was a member of the Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) group in the early 1980s, led by Rumelhart and McClelland, which sought to understand cognitive processes like learning and memory through networks of processing units inspired by neurons.

Glushko has worked to ensure Rumelhart's influence was not forgotten following his passing - first by establishing the Rumelhart Prize, a prestigious international award through the Cognitive Science Society, often dubbed the "Nobel Prize of Cognitive Science," and later through academic prizes for undergraduates and graduate students in the field around the world. McClelland also played a key role in establishing the Rumelhart Prize, and led the selection committee for the prize for several years.

Glushko remained close with his three other committee advisors over the years as well. He counts Norman, directorof the Design Lab and professor emeritus of Psychology and Cognitive Science at UC San Diego,as a longtime mentor. When Glushko was an undergraduate at Stanford University, Norman encouraged him to study cognitive psychology at UC San Diego. He has since influenced Glushko's research related to design and organization and contributed to Glushko's book on "The Discipline of Organizing," now in its 5th edition. Elman also made numerous important contributions to the book, as well as Glushko's course development at UC Berkeley.

According to Glushko, establishing the endowed chairs at UC San Diego felt like the natural progression. "These were giants in their field," he said. "They shaped how we understand intelligence, meaning and learning. Their work made modern AI possible. They trained the pioneers. They changed everything. My goal with naming these chairs is to ensure that the world continues to remember the people who built the field - and that the next generation has the resources to extend their vision."

In addition to his role at UC Berkeley, Glushko was made an honorary lifetime member of the Cognitive Science Society in 2008 for "outstanding, sustained contributions to the general advancement of cognitive science, and in particular, to the Cognitive Science Society."

In 2014, Glushko's book, "The Discipline of Organizing" was named an Information Science Book of the Year by the Association of Information Science and Technology. It is free for download, along with an adaptation of the book for middle schoolers, "The Discipline of Organizing for Kids."

Glushko is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Cognitive Science Department at UC San Diego. In 2011, he was named one of 50 UC San Diego Alumni Leaders in celebration of the campus's 50th Anniversary.

"I just love cognitive science," Glushko said. "It shaped how I think and how I built my career. I want students and scholars to feel the same excitement and possibility I felt at UC San Diego."