Jitendra Malik stands as one of the world's most distinguished computer scientists, renowned for his pioneering contributions to computer vision and artificial intelligence. He currently serves as the Arthur J. Chick Professor in the Computer Science Division of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also holds faculty positions in the Bioengineering Department and Cognitive Science and Vision Science groups. Born in 1960, in Mathura, India, Malik earned his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1980 with a gold medal as the department's top graduate, followed by a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1985. He joined UC Berkeley in January 1986 where he has remained throughout his distinguished career, serving as Chair of the Computer Science Division from 2002 to 2004 and as Department Chair of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from 2004 to 2006 and again from 2016 to 2017.
Professor Malik's research has fundamentally shaped the field of computer vision through his development of foundational algorithms and conceptual frameworks that have become standard in both academic research and industry applications. His seminal contributions include pioneering work on anisotropic diffusion for image denoising, normalized cuts for clustering and segmentation, high dynamic range imaging techniques, and shape contexts that have been widely adopted across the computer vision community. According to Google Scholar, five of his research papers have received more than one thousand citations each, demonstrating the extraordinary impact of his work on the broader scientific community. His research spans critical areas including image segmentation, perceptual grouping, texture analysis, stereopsis, and object recognition, with applications extending to computer graphics, intelligent vehicle systems, and biological image analysis. These contributions have been instrumental in establishing computer vision as a thriving discipline that bridges computer science, engineering, and cognitive science.
Beyond his technical contributions, Malik has profoundly influenced the computer vision community through his exceptional mentorship and leadership, having guided more than seventy PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who now occupy prominent positions in academia and industry worldwide. His exceptional contributions have been recognized through election to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, along with prestigious awards including the 2016 ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award, the 2018 IJCAI Award for Research Excellence in AI, and the 2019 IEEE Computer Society's Computer Pioneer Award. He currently serves as Director of Research at Facebook AI Research in Menlo Park, where he leads efforts in computer vision, machine learning, and robotics, while continuing his academic appointment at UC Berkeley. Professor Malik's ongoing research focuses on advancing the frontiers of computer vision and artificial intelligence, with implications for robotics, healthcare diagnostics, and human-computer interaction. His sustained leadership and innovative spirit continue to shape the trajectory of these rapidly evolving fields.
