H.C. Longuet-Higgins (1923-2004)

Prof. Hugh Christopher Longuet-Higgins, who proposed the field of the 'Cognitive Sciences' in the seventies, has passed away earlier this week at the age of 81.

Longuet-Higgins's career began as a theoretical chemist applying a more rigorous use of quantum mechanics to chemistry than had heretofore been customary. Having done all the chemistry he wanted to do by the age of 40, work that was recognized by his election to be a Fellow of the Royal Society, he joined Donald Michie and Richard Gregory in founding the Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception in Edinburgh University in 1967. Longuet-Higgins brought a thorough knowledge of the mathematics of the continuum to enrich that environment, and it has always informed his work in Artificial Intelligence, together with that of some at least of his students, of whom Geoffrey Hinton is perhaps best known. Longuet-Higgins has worked on various aspects of perception, including pose-recovery in machine vision, speech and the perception of music. His work on developing computational models of music understanding was recognized in the nineties by the award of an Honorary Doctorate of Music by Sheffield University.

For more information, see http://www.hum.uva.nl/mmm/lh/