The executive board of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) has selected Corey J. Maley, associate professor of philosophy at Purdue University, as the winner of its 2024 Herbert A. Simon Award for Outstanding Research in Computing and Philosophy.

The Simon Award “recognizes scholars at an early stage of their academic career whose research is likely to reshape debates at the nexus of Computing and Philosophy.”

The board recognized Professor Maley for his work on the nature and varieties of computation. They write:

He is currently working on a theory of computation that is broad enough to incorporate distinct types of computation as species (i.e., both digital and analog) in both artifacts and natural systems (i.e., engineered systems and neural systems). At the same time, this theory needs to be narrow enough to avoid making everything computational, or making computation a mere matter of perspective. Finally, this theory should make clear what the various types of computation have in common such that they are all of the same genera, yet distinct enough to count as separate species of that genera. Much of this project has been informed by Corey’s research into analog computation, which is not (as is commonly thought) essentially about continuity. Revealing the differences between analog and digital computation, as well as their similarities, has illuminated what aspects of computation are specific only to digital computation, and not necessary features of computation in general.

As part of the award, Professor Maley will present the Simon Award Keynote Address at the IACAP 2024 conference this summer in Eugene, Oregon.

You can a list of previous winners of the Simon Award here.