Prof. Jitendra Malik is one of the most distinguished computer scientists of the world who has made significant contributions in the fields of computer vision, computational modelling of biological vision, machine learning. Currently, he serves as the Arthur J. Chick Professor in the Computer Science Division, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley. In 2008, IIT Kanpur conferred upon him the Distinguished Alumnus Award in recognition of his outstanding work.
Jitendra Malik completed his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1980 with flying colours. He outshined everyone and won a gold medal for being the best graduating student in the department. In 1985, he completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. In January 1986, he joined the University of California at Berkeley where he continues to work in the Computer Science Division, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. He is also on the faculty of the Department of Bioengineering, and the Cognitive Science and Vision Science groups.
Prof. Malik's areas of interest include artificial intelligence, biosystems & computational biology, control, intelligent systems, and robotics, graphics, human-computer interaction (HCI), and signal processing. Several well-known concepts and algorithms arose in this work, such as anisotropic diffusion, normalized cuts, high dynamic range imaging and shape contexts. He is a recipient of several prestigious awards such as Presidential Young Investigator Award (1989), the Rosenbaum fellowship for the computer vision programme at the Newton Institute of Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge (1993), and Miller Research Professorship in 2001.
(Embedded Vision Alliance Interview with Professor Jitendra Malik)