David Gelernter

Mr. Gelernter, who had studied to become a rabbi, is best known for inventing an innovative computer programming language he named Linda, after the pornography star Linda Lovelace. It has attracted a wide following in both the scientific world and for its commercial applications in publishing and computer animation. Professor Gelernter's brother, Joel, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Yale Medical School, is also a specialist in genetics. Gelernter, has already attracted a barrage of criticism after making controversial statements during an exclusive interview with Science Today. The controversial computer scientist already known for his strong stance against the science behind global warming has openly and vehemently criticized the space policy of the Barack Obama administration and its goal to reach Mars in 2030. Despite his controversial claims, David Gelernter is a world-renown and multiple award-winning computer scientist known for his contributions to parallel computation and his early prediction of the rise of the World Wide Web. Dr. Gelernter is a graduate of Yale, where he earned a B.A. and an M.A. in classical Hebrew literature; he received his Ph.D. in computer science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1982, the year he returned to Yale as an assistant professor. He has been at Yale ever since. In 1993, a bomb exploded in David Gelernter's office at Yale University and nearly blew off the professor's right hand and severely damaged his right eye and ear. He had been yarget of the the Unabomber. His ongoing research interests include applied artificial intelligence, philosophy of mind, and information management. He is a former member of the board of directors of the National Endowment for the Arts and is currently a national fellow of the American Enterprise Institute and a senior fellow in Jewish thought at the Shalem Institute in Jerusalem.