Background

Dabblal Rajagopal Reddy was born on June 13, 1937, in Katoor, India, near Madras. His father, Srdenivasulu Reddy, was an agricultural landlord and his mother, Pitchamma, was a homemaker. Reddy attended the ZP High School at Sri Kalahasti in Chittoor District, and received his Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Guindy College of Engineering, Madras (now Anna University, Chennai), India, in 1958. After his undergraduate work, he moved to Australia as an exchange student and received a Master’s degree in technology in 1960 from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Upon finishing his Master’s, he worked as an Applied Science Representative for IBM in Australia. He has worked as a politician, an academic, a scientist, a researcher and a chancellor.

Education

After his undergraduate work, he moved to Australia as an exchange student and received a Master’s degree in technology in 1960 from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. In 1963, Reddy came to Stanford University as a PhD student. In early 1964, he began a class project under John McCarthy.

Career

He is the first person of Asian origin to receive the ACM Turing Award, in 1994, the highest award in Computer Science, for his work in the field of artificial intelligence. In 2005, Reddy was honored as the first recipient of the Mozah Bint Nasser Chair of Computer Science and Robotics. A gift from the Qatar Foundation, the chair was awarded as part of the inaugural celebration honoring the opening of CMU’s new campus in Qatar. Reddy and his colleagues have also made seminal contributions to other areas of artificial intelligence and computer science. Reddy’s accomplishments have led to many awards and honors. In addition to being a co-recipient with Ed Feigenbaum of the ACM Turing Award in 1994, he is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Achievements

• From 1960, Reddy worked for International Business Machines Corporation in Australia. He was an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford from 1966-69. He joined the Carnegie Mellon University faculty as an Associate Professor of Computer Science in 1969. He became a Full Professor in 1973, and a University Professor in 1984. He was the founding Director of the Robotics Institute from 1979 to 1991 and the Dean of School of Computer Science. Reddy was a co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee from 1999 to 2001. He was one of the founders of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and was its President from 1987 to 1989. He serves on the International Board of Governors of Peres Center for Peace in Israel.

Membership

• the United States National Academy of Engineering , USA

• American Academy of Arts and Sciences

• Chinese Academy of Engineering

  1979 - 1984

• Indian National Academy of Engineering

Connections

Father:

Srdenivasulu Reddy

Mother:

Pitchamma

Doctoral advisor:

John McCarthy

John McCarthy was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. He coined the term "artificial intelligence".