John E. Laird

John E. Laird is the John L. Tishman Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan.

John was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and attended Huron High School. He then went to the University of Michigan as an undergraduate, majoring in Communication and Computer Science, graduating in 1975. He then worked at Bourroughs Corp. for one year, which although it was a worthwhile experience, convinced him to go to graduate school. He was fortunate enough to attend Carnegie Mellon University and work with Allen Newell and Paul Rosenbloom, graduating with a Ph.D. in 1983. From 1984 to 1986, he was a member of research staff at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. In 1986 he moved back to Ann Arbor and joined the faculty of the University of Michigan.

He started working on Soar in 1981, and it, together with the broader issues associated with cognitive architecture, has been the focus of his research ever since. He leads Soar's continued evolution, including the recent development and integration of reinforcement learning, episodic memory, semantic memory, visual and spatial mental imagery, and appraisal-based emotion. The new book is his attempt to summarize and organize his research on Soar and cognitive architecture more generally. Although it much more work than he expected, he is thrilled to have it published, and thanks his co-authors for all of their efforts.

In late 1997, early 1998, we co-founded of Soar Technology, Inc.

He is a Fellow of AAAI, AAAS, ACM, and the Cognitive Science Society.

John is married to Ann Alpern. He has three daughters: Emily, Jessica, and Valerie.