Resigning as Dean of Science

This evening I emailed to the Provost my letter of resignation as the Dean of the Faculty of Science.

Needless to say, this was a difficult decision. The University of Alberta has changed a lot in the last three years. The University's leadership has made decisions and taken actions that I cannot support. Therefore, the Faculty of Science would be better served by a different leader, one who is more in line with the expectations of the President and Provost.

My resignation takes effect October 1. I will use the next two months to tie up loose ends, complete my FEC evaluations, and assist the Interim Dean get up to speed (whoever that may be).

I have been at the University of Alberta for almost 35 years and am proud of the teaching, research, and administrative projects that I have been part of. I believe we accomplished much in Science over the past six years.

What am I going to do when my Deanship ends? I will continue to promote AI in the city/province/country, hope to restart my research program, and anticipate working on exciting new projects (on or off campus). I look forward to normal length working days, free time on the weekends, worry-free sleep, and receiving less than 100 emails a day.

It has been a pleasure being part of the excitement in the Faculty of Science. Great students, staff, instructors, and faculty translates to excellent undergraduate and graduate programs, and superb research. Thank you for the privilege of working with you and for you.

Pilgramage to Iceland

A few weeks ago I attended the International Joint Conference in Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) in Stockholm. It is one of the premier AI research conferences, and one that I have published in many times.

We traveled to Stockholm via Iceland, where I was delighted to get together with UAlberta alumni Yngvi Bjornsson, Bjorn Bjornsson, and Marius Olafsson.  Yngvi kindly toured us around, including helping me make a pilgrimage to the grave of Robert James Fischer -- Bobby Fisher, world chess champion 1972-1975. We do not need to go into the sad story of his life post his winning the world championship. However, to a young impressionable chess player in the early 1970s, Bobby was electrifying. He had to win every game, eschewing the easy draw. He played bold creative chess, resulting in numerous games of incredible beauty. He challenged the Soviet chess juggernaut -- and won. He was inspirational. I studied his games and dreamed of becoming the world chess champion.

Yngvi Bjornsson and Jonathan Schaeffer at the grave of Robert J. Fischer

I never came close to being world champion (although I am a ranked master). However, it motivated me to go into artificial intelligence research. If I could not be the world champion, then maybe I could build a program to be the world champion. I did not achieve that goal either (although my program Phoenix tied for first in the 1986 World Computer Chess Championship). Deep Blue came along and, well, the rest is history.

In the end I did become world champion: at checkers! Our checkers-playing program Chinook became the first program in any game to win a human world championship. And that would not have happened had I not been inspired by Bobby Fischer.