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A Timeline of John McCarthy

By ImmrtlWlf
  • Birth

    Birth

    Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 4, 1927, to John Patrick and Ida McCarthy.
  • Accepted to Caltech.

    Accepted to Caltech.

    He was accepted to Caltech in 1944, however, he got suspended for skipping PE courses.
  • Period: to

    Caltech BS Degree

    Re admitted to Caltech to complete his BS in Mathematics.
  • Period: to

    Ph.D. in Mathematics

    He continued to achieve complete his Ph.D. in Mathematics at Princeton University while under the supervision of Donald C. Spencer. His final thesis for his Ph.D. was "Projection operators and partial differential equations."
  • Period: to

    Professor at Stanford University

    During this period, he was a professor at Stanford University.
  • Coined the term of "Artificial Intelligence."

    Coined the term of "Artificial Intelligence."

    McCarthy coined the term Artificial Intelligence while working on a two-month research proposal for "Artificial Intelligence."
  • Period: to

    Professor at Dartmouth College

    During this period, he was a professor at Dartmouth College.
  • AI Research Conference

    AI Research Conference

    McCarthy held a two-month research conference during the summer at Dartmouth College.
  • Development of LISP

    Development of LISP

    McCarthy developed the computer programming language LISP, one of the earliest high-level programming languages. It used mathematical notation, influencing future developments like data trees, automatic storage, and a self-hosting compiler.
  • Period: to

    Professor at MIT

    During this period he was a professor at MIT.
  • Garbage Collection

    Garbage Collection

    Around 1959 McCarthy created the "garbage collection" method, which solved problems in LISP using memory management.
  • Programs with Common Sense

    Programs with Common Sense

    McCarthy developed a paper called "Programs with Common Sense," which outlined Mccarthy's ideals on AI. Specifically, he stated, "a system which is to evolve intelligence of human order."
  • Development of SAIL

    Development of SAIL

    McCarthy co-founded the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab.
  • Period: to

    Director of SAIL

    Served as the director at Sail during this period.

  • McCarthy Soviet Chess

    McCarthy played a series of chess matches with rivals in Russia, which he stated was pertinent to the further development of AI; he lost two matches and drew the other 2.
  • Turing Award

    Turing Award

    He was given the ACM Turing award.
  • Period: to

    Circumscription

    During this period, McCarthy developed Circumscription, which accommodated the common sense ideology "things are as expected if not specified."
  • Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines

    Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines

    McCarthy authored the article "Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines."

  • Charles M. Pigott Director

    Was named the Charles M. Pigott director at Stanford School of Engineering.
  • The Kyoto Prize

    The Kyoto Prize

    McCarthy was awarded the Kyoto Prize.
  • National Medal of Science

    National Medal of Science

    McCarthy was given the National Medal of Science.
  • Benjamin Franklin Medal

    Benjamin Franklin Medal

    McCarthy was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal.

  • Death

    McCarthy died at his home on October 24th, 2011