Marvin Minsky was the Toshiba professor of media arts and sciences and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science. A pioneer of robotics and telepresence, his research led to both theoretical and practical advances in artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, neural networks, and the theory of Turing Machines and recursive functions. (In 1961 he solved Emil Post’s problem of “Tag” and showed that any computer can be simulated by a machine with only two registers and two simple instructions.) More at MIT News

Read the 1989 citation by the Killian Award Selection Committee