PITTSBURGH-Jaime Carbonell, Allen Newell Professor of Computer Science and director of the Language Technologies Institute in the School of Computer Science, has received the elite distinction of University Professor, the highest academic accolade a faculty member can achieve at Carnegie Mellon.

Nadine Aubry and Chris Hendrickson of the College of Engineering join Carbonell as newly designated University Professors.

"Professors Aubry, Carbonell and Hendrickson represent the intellectual foundation on which this university is built. They are esteemed, award-winning scholars who are committed to advancing their fields through education, groundbreaking research and their impact on the world. They have earned this most distinguished honor through their academic pursuits and service to the university, and we are most fortunate and proud to have them as part of our community," said Provost and Executive Vice President Mark Kamlet.

Carbonell is a widely recognized authority in the fields of machine translation, natural language processing and machine learning. He has invented a number of well-known algorithms and methods, including Proactive Machine Learning and Maximal Marginal Relevance for information retrieval. His work has spawned or contributed to a number of commercial enterprises, including Carnegie Speech, Carnegie Group and Dynamix Technologies.

His research also includes Computational Proteomics and Biolinguistics, which adapts the computational tools developed for analyzing language to understand the biological information encoded in protein structures and leads to understanding protein-protein interactions and molecular signaling processes.

"Jaime Carbonell thoroughly embodies our claim that 'big bets lead to big breakthroughs,' reflecting a tradition for computer science at CMU to pursue research ideas that carry a high risk, but with the potential of creating transformational technology," said Randal E Bryant, dean of the School of Computer Science. "Jaime's biggest bet has been in automated language translation, a topic once thought impossible but now is available in usable, if not perfect form, from Microsoft and Google, thanks to a large extent on work by Jaime and his colleagues."

Carbonell created the university's Ph.D. program in language technologies, and is co-creator of the Universal Library and its Million Book Project. He founded CMU's Center for Machine Translation in 1986 and led its transformation in 1996 into the Language Technologies Institute, one of seven departments within the School of Computer Science.

He earned bachelor's degrees in mathematics and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his master's degree and Ph.D. in computer science at Yale University. He has authored more than 300 research papers.

Aubry and Hendrickson are faculty members in the College of Engineering. Aubry is the Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor and head of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Hendrickson is the Duquesne Light Company Professor of Engineering in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. He also is co-director of the Green Design Institute.

"These accolades are well deserved for two outstanding academic leaders and innovative researchers dedicated to pushing the boundaries of knowledge both here at CMU and globally," said College of Engineering Dean Pradeep K. Khosla, the Philip and Marsha Dowd University Professor. Khosla was recently named chancellor at University of California, San Diego, effective Aug. 1.

For more information, see the university's news release.