Seymour Papert

Seymour Papert
Seymour Papert (May 2006)
Born	Seymour Aubrey Papert (1928-02-29)February 29, 1928 Pretoria, South Africa
Died	July 31, 2016(2016-07-31) (aged 88) Blue Hill, Maine, United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Cognitive science Education Mathematics Computer science
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Geneva University of Paris National Physical Laboratory
Alma mater	University of the Witwatersrand (BA, PhD) University of Cambridge (PhD)
Theses	Sequential Convergence In Lattices With Special Reference To Modular And Subgroup Lattices (1952) The lattices of logic and topology (1960)
Doctoral advisor	Frank Smithies
Doctoral students	Idit Harel Caperton Carl Hewitt Mitchel Resnick David Williamson Shaffer Gerald Jay Sussman Terry Winograd
Known for	Perceptrons Artificial intelligence Logo programming language One Laptop per Child Papert's principle
Spouse	Dona Strauss Androula Henriques Sherry Turkle Suzanne Massie
Website papert.org

Seymour Aubrey Papert (February 29, 1928 – July 31, 2016) was a South African-born American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, who spent most of his career teaching and researching at MIT. He was one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, and of the constructionist movement in education. He was co-inventor, with Wally Feurzeig and Cynthia Solomon, of the Logo programming language.

Papert attended the University of the Witwatersrand, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy in 1949 followed by a PhD in mathematics in 1952. He then went on to receive a second doctorate, also in mathematics, at the University of Cambridge (1959), supervised by Frank Smithies.

Papert worked as a researcher in a variety of places, including St. John's College, Cambridge, the Henri Poincaré Institute at the University of Paris, the University of Geneva, and the National Physical Laboratory in London before becoming a research associate at MIT in 1963. He held this position until 1967, when he became professor of applied math and was made co-director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by its founding director Professor Marvin Minsky, until 1981; he also served as Cecil and Ida Green professor of education at MIT from 1974 to 1981.