Nils John Nilsson

{{Short description|American computer scientist (1933–2019)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2024}} {{Use American English|date=February 2024}} {{Infobox scientist | image = Nils-Nilsson-2013.jpg | caption = Nilsson in 2013 | birth_date = {{birth date|1933|2|6|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Saginaw, Michigan|Saginaw]], [[Michigan]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2019|4|23|1933|2|6|mf=y}} | death_place = [[Medford, Oregon|Medford]], [[Oregon]], U.S. | ethnicity = | fields = [[Artificial intelligence]] | workplaces = [[SRI International]] [[Stanford University]] | alma_mater = [[Stanford University]] | thesis_title = An Application of the Theory of Games to Radar Reception Problems{{cite web|url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=70729|title=Nils J. Nilsson|website=[[Mathematics Genealogy Project]]|access-date=April 29, 2019}} | thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1958 | doctoral_advisor = [[Willis Harman]] | doctoral_students = [[Leslie P. Kaelbling]] | known_for = | awards = }}

'''Nils John Nilsson''' (February 6, 1933 – April 23, 2019) was an [[Americans|American]] computer scientist. He was one of the founding researchers in the discipline of [[artificial intelligence]]. He was the first Kumagai Professor of Engineering in [[computer science]] at [[Stanford University]] from 1991 until his retirement. He is particularly known for his contributions to [[search algorithm|search]], [[automated planning and scheduling|planning]], [[knowledge representation]], and [[robotics]].

[[File:Shakey.png|thumb|right|Shakey at the [[Computer History Museum]], [[Mountain View, California]]]]

== Early life and education ==

Nilsson was born in [[Saginaw, Michigan|Saginaw]], [[Michigan]], in 1933.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/obituaries/nils-nilssen-dead.html|title=Nils Nilsson, 86, dies; scientist helped robots find their way|last=Markoff|first=John|date=April 25, 2019|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 28, 2019}} He received his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1958, and spent much of his career at [[SRI International]], a private research lab spun off from Stanford.

Nilsson served as a [[lieutenant]] in the [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]] from 1958 to 1961; he was stationed at the [[Rome Laboratory|Rome Air Development Center]] in [[Rome, New York|Rome]], [[New York (state)|New York]].

== Career == === SRI International === Starting in 1966, Nilsson, along with [[Charles Rosen (scientist)|Charles A. Rosen]] and [[Bertram Raphael]], led a research team in the construction of [[Shakey the Robot|Shakey]], a robot that constructed a model of its environment from sensor data, reasoned about that environment to arrive at a plan of action, then carried that plan out by sending commands to its motors. This paradigm has been enormously influential in AI. Textbooks such as ''Introduction to Artificial Intelligence'',{{Cite book |last=Charniak |first=Eugene |title=Introduction to artificial intelligence |date=1985 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |others=Drew V. McDermott |isbn=0-201-11945-5 |location=Reading, Mass. |oclc=11468509}} ''Essentials of Artificial Intelligence'',{{Cite book |last=Ginsberg |first=Matthew L. |title=Essentials of artificial intelligence |date=1993 |publisher=M. Kaufmann |others=Matt Ginsberg |isbn=1-55860-334-4 |location=San Mateo Calif |oclc=612190271}} and the first edition of ''Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach''{{Cite book |last=Russell |first=Stuart J. |title=Artificial intelligence : a modern approach |date=1995 |publisher=Prentice Hall |others=Peter Norvig |isbn=0-13-103805-2 |location=Englewood Cliffs, N.J. |oclc=31288015}} show this influence in almost every chapter. Although the basic idea of using logical reasoning to decide on actions is due to John McCarthy,{{Cite web |last=McCarthy |first=John |date=1958 |title=Programs with Common Sense |url=http://jmc.stanford.edu/articles/mcc59.html |access-date=2022-05-28 |website=jmc.stanford.edu}} Nilsson's group was the first to embody it in a complete agent, along the way inventing the [[A* search algorithm]]{{Cite journal |last1=Hart |first1=Peter |last2=Nilsson |first2=Nils |last3=Raphael |first3=Bertram |date=1968 |title=A Formal Basis for the Heuristic Determination of Minimum Cost Paths |journal=IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=100–107 |doi=10.1109/TSSC.1968.300136 |issn=0536-1567}} and founding the field of [[automated planning and scheduling|automated temporal planning]]. In the latter pursuit, they invented the [[Stanford Research Institute Problem Solver|STRIPS]] planner,{{Cite journal |last1=Fikes |first1=Richard E. |last2=Nilsson |first2=Nils J. |date=December 1971 |title=Strips: A new approach to the application of theorem proving to problem solving |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0004370271900105 |journal=Artificial Intelligence |language=en |volume=2 |issue=3–4 |pages=189–208 |doi=10.1016/0004-3702(71)90010-5|s2cid=8623866 |url-access=subscription }} whose action representation is still the basis of many of today's planning algorithms. The subfield of automated temporal planning called ''classical planning'' is based on most of the assumptions built into STRIPS.

=== Stanford University === In 1985, Nilsson became a faculty member at [[Stanford University]], in the Computer Science Department. He was chair of the department from 1985 to 1990. He was the Kumagai Professor of Engineering from the foundation of the Chair in around 1991{{cite web |url=https://ai.stanford.edu/~nilsson/OnlinePubs-Nils/General%20Essays/OtherEssays-Nils/kumagaispeech.pdf |title=Thoughts on Becoming the First Kumagai Professor of Engineering |publisher=Stanford University |date=18 March 1991 |access-date=30 April 2019 }} until his retirement, and remained Kumagai Professor Emeritus until his death.

He was the fourth President of the [[AAAI]] (1982–83) and a Founding Fellow of that organization. Nilsson wrote or coauthored several books on AI, including two that have been especially widely read—''Principles of Artificial Intelligence'' (1982) and ''Logical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence'' (1987).

== Awards and memberships ==

In 2011, Nilsson was inducted into [[IEEE Intelligent Systems]]' AI's Hall of Fame for the "significant contributions to the field of AI and intelligent systems".{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

== Personal life ==

On July 19, 1958, Nilsson married Karen Braucht, with whom he had two children. Braucht died in 1991. In 1992 he married Grace Abbott, who had four children from a previous marriage.

Nilsson died on April 23, 2019, at his home in [[Medford, Oregon|Medford]], [[Oregon]], at the age of 86.{{cite web|url=https://news.stanford.edu/2019/04/24/nils-nilsson-pioneer-robotics-artificial-intelligence-dies-86/|title=Nils Nilsson, pioneer in robotics and artificial intelligence, dies at 86|last=Myers|first=Andrew|date=April 24, 2019|website=[[Stanford University|Stanford.edu]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426161614/https://news.stanford.edu/2019/04/24/nils-nilsson-pioneer-robotics-artificial-intelligence-dies-86/|archive-date=April 26, 2019|access-date=April 28, 2019}}

== Selected publications ==

• {{Citation|author-mask=1 |last1=Nilsson |first1=Nils John|title=Principles of Artificial Intelligence|year=1982|orig-year=1980|publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer-Verlag]]|isbn=978-3-540-11340-9}}. In the early 1980s, it was one of the first Western textbooks on AI to be translated into Chinese and published in China.{{Cite book |last=Frost |first=Shuang L. |title=Machine Decision is Not Final: China and the History and Future of Artificial Intelligence |publisher=Urbanomic, [[MIT Press]] |year=2025 |isbn=9781913029999 |editor-last=Bratton |editor-first=Benjamin |chapter=Translating Chinese AI: From 'Humanmade Intelligence' to 'Black Tech' |editor-last2=Greenspan |editor-first2=Anna |editor-last3=Ireland |editor-first3=Amy |editor-last4=Konior |editor-first4=Bogna}}{{Reference page|page=|pages=41-42}}
• {{Citation|last1=Genesereth |first1=Michael |author-link1=Michael Genesereth|author-mask2=1 |last2=Nilsson |first2=Nils John |title=Logical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence|year=1987|orig-year=1976|publisher=[[Morgan Kaufmann Publishers|Morgan Kaufmann]]|isbn=978-1-493-30598-8}}.
• {{Citation|author-mask=1 |last1=Nilsson |first1=Nils John|title=The Mathematical Foundations of Learning Machines|year=1990|publisher=[[Morgan Kaufmann Publishers|Morgan Kaufmann]]|isbn=978-1-558-60123-9}}.
• {{Citation|author-mask=1 |last1=Nilsson |first1=Nils John|title=Artificial Intelligence: A New Synthesis|year=1998|publisher=[[Morgan Kaufmann Publishers|Morgan Kaufmann]]|isbn=978-1-558-60467-4}}.
• {{Citation|author-mask=1 |last1=Nilsson |first1=Nils John|title=The Quest for Artificial Intelligence|year=2009|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-11639-8}}.
• {{Citation|author-mask=1 |last1=Nilsson |first1=Nils John|title=Understanding Beliefs|year=2014|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|isbn=978-0-262-52643-2}}.

==See also==

• [[Morgan Kaufmann Publishers]]

== References ==

{{reflist}}

== External links ==

*[https://ai.stanford.edu/~nilsson/ Nilsson's home page] *{{MathGenealogy |id=70729 |title=Nils John Nilsson}} *{{AIGenealogy |id=6 |title=Nils J. Nilsson}} *[https://purl.umn.edu/107545 Oral history interview with Nils J. Nilsson], [[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Nilsson gives an overview of DARPA-sponsored AI research at SRI, including his own work in robotics (especially during the period 1966-1971), research on the Computer Based Consultant, and related research on natural language and speech understanding. He describes the significance and relationship of robotics to the larger field of AI, particularly the intellectual problems it addressed and the enabling technologies it helped develop.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsson, Nils John}} [[Category:1933 births]] [[Category:2019 deaths]] [[Category:American people of Swedish descent]] [[Category:American artificial intelligence researchers]] [[Category:Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence]] [[Category:People from Saginaw, Michigan]] [[Category:Presidents of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence]] [[Category:SRI International people]] [[Category:Stanford University alumni]] [[Category:Stanford University School of Engineering faculty]]