Geoffrey Hinton receives the Nobel Prize in Physics

Geoffrey Hintona University Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, has won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Hinton is widely considered the “godfather of AI” and shared the award John J Hopfield from Princeton University for fundamental discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.

Hinton said he was “amazed” by the honor.

“I didn't expect that. I am extremely surprised and honored to be a part of it,” he said.

Hinton and Hopfield are credited with using tools from physics to advance fundamental research in the field. Specifically, Hopfield created associative memory that can store and reconstruct images in data, while Hinton invented a way to find properties in data and perform tasks such as identifying specific elements in images.

“On behalf of the University of Toronto, I am delighted to congratulate University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton on receiving the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics,” said the U of T president Meric Gertler. “The U of T community is immensely proud of his historic achievement.”

Hinton was selected for the high-profile award for his use of the Hopfield network, invented by his fellow honoree, as the basis for a new network called the Boltzmann machine that can learn to recognize elements within a given type of data.

The Boltzmann machine can classify images and generate new examples of the pattern it was trained on. Hinton and his graduate students later built on this work to usher in today's rapid development of machine learning – a technology that now underlies a wide range of applications from large language models like ChatGPT to self-driving cars.

“The work of the award winners has already been of great benefit. “In physics, we use artificial neural networks in a wide variety of areas, such as developing new materials with specific properties,” he said Ellen MoonsChairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

Hinton came to U of T in 1987 as a professor of computer science after working at various universities in the United Kingdom, where he was born, and in the United States.

In the years that followed, Hinton's research group built on his early work with a series of developments that paved the way for an explosion in deep learning that some have compared in importance to the Industrial Revolution.

In 2006, he was appointed University Professor – U of T's highest academic appointment. He is also a senior scientific advisor at the Vector Institute in Toronto.

In recent years, he has captured the world's attention by warning about the risks posed by rapid and unfettered AI development.

Hinton adds the Nobel Prize to a long list of honors that, in addition to co-workers, also includes the AM Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (widely considered the Nobel Prize in computer science). Yann LeCun And Yoshua BengioElected to the US National Academy of Sciences, a Royal Medal of the Royal Society, Companion of the Order of Canada and Fellow of the Royal Societies of Canada and London.

Hinton is fourth Researcher at U of T winning a Nobel Prize over the years.

Sir Frederick Banting And JJR Macleod received a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work Charles Best in 1923 to isolate insulin. In 1986 John Polanyi was one of three winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing the new field of reaction dynamics.

Other members of the U of T community, including several alumni, have received or been associated with the international award.

Oliver Smithiesa former professor at U of T, was one of the joint winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007 for discovering the “principles for introducing specific gene changes in mice through the use of embryonic stem cells.”

In 1999, he was named a U of T professor James Orbinski accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Doctors Without Borders, which was recognized for his humanitarian work.

Anti-nuclear activist and U of T graduate Setsuko Thurlow accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway in 2017 on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

In 2001 Michael Spencea graduate of the University of Toronto Schools, was one of three joint winners of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel for his contributions to the analysis of markets with asymmetric information.

Bertram Brockhousewho earned two degrees from U of T, was co-winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing neutron scattering techniques to study condensed matter.

Arthur Shawlowan alumnus, was one of three winners of the same prize in 1981 for his contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy.

He became a graduate of U of T in 1998 Walter Kohn was co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of density functional theory.

Former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearsonwho received a bachelor's degree from U of T, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957.

There's more to come…