- Email: [email protected]
Gerald Salton (1927–1995)
Pergamon
Information Processing& Management.Vol.31, No. 6, pp. 787-788. 1995 ElsevierScienceLtd. Printed in Great Britain
IN MEMORIAM GERALD SALTON (1927-1995) Professor of Computer Science, Cornell University Information science has lost one of its towering figures, a pioneer in the development and testing of advanced information retrieval techniques and systems. Modern information retrieval owes its very existence to Gerry, as he was fondly known in the field. The scope of his accomplishments and the impact of his work on the evolution of information retrieval is enomaous. A full account would require an analysis of Gerry's contributions in the context of his times from the late 1950s to the very time of his recent death. We can only provide a glimpse here. Gerry was bom on 8 March 1927 in Nurenberg, Germany, but the Second World War forced his family to flee Germany--he and his brother were led across the border at night to elude German guards. He came to the United States in 1947, and became a citizen in 1952. He graduated in mathematics from Brooklyn College in 1950 and received a masters degree from the same college in 1952. Then on to Harvard, where he received his doctorate in 1958. Gerry was the last doctoral student of Howard Aiken, and one of the first programmers for the Harvard's MARK IV computer. He stayed at Harvard as instructor (1958-1960) and then assistant professor till he moved to Cornell in 1965. At Comell University he was among the founders of the Department of Computer Science. Gerry stayed at Cornell for the rest of his life. Gerry is identified with SMART (System for the Manipulation and Retrieval of Text), which was also affectionately referred to as 'Salton's Magical Retriever of Text.' Early in his career he became interested in natural language processing and in its association with information retrieval. He conceived of SMART at Harvard, it came to full bloom at Cornell. SMART was and still is a computer-based laboratory where ideas about new and differing information retrieval algorithms and techniques could be tested, compared, refined, and improved under controlled conditions. SMART consisted of a variety of files of documents, together with queries and relevance judgements on which various methods for representation and searching of texts in documents and queries could be applied and evaluated using common criteria and measures. Many of today's information retrieval techniques applied to texts and natural language processing came out of SMART and the experiments conducted by Gerry and his students. These include: sophisticated statistical schemes for distinguishing between important and less important terms in texts and as related to queries; the vector space model for information retrieval; relevance feedback techniques for query optimization; and many others. He was generous with providing SMART files and programs to researchers around the globe, so SMART-based experiments were conducted not only at Cornell, but also in many other institutions in a number of countries. Today's experiments conducted under auspices of TREC (Text Retrieval Conference) follow directly from experiences with SMART. Along with Cyril Cleverdon and his Cranfield tests of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gerry and his 30-year work on SMART, established a finn tradition of experimentation and evaluation in information retrieval. He was not alone in establishing information science as an empirical and experiment-based science (in addition to being a profession), but he was more responsible than anybody else for the fortunate development of experimental tradition. As a result, introduction and development of new ideas in information retrieval is inexorably connected with their evaluation under rigid experimental conditions. Moreover, this evaluation is not restricted only to their computability and computing efficiency, but also to users and use, as implied by the application of relevance as the central criterion. Of course, there are many problems about relevance (or any similar criteria associated with "messy" human cognitive structures and judgements), but it supplies the right context and tool for evaluating and operating information retrieval systems, which are fundamentally social systems based on human communication. Gerry may have not expressed it in this way, but he certainly proceeded from these premises. He has helped in a major way to root modern information retrieval on this foundation. The 1970s and 1980s were 'feast' years for development and phenomenal growth of information industry based on the IR techniques developed in the 1950s and 1960s. But they were 'famine' years for the introduction and translation of more modern techniques developed under SMART and other similar projects into industry. Gerry and many of his colleagues persisted, despite many discouraging questions during the what he called 'lean decades' on the theme: "How come nobody is buying this in 'real life'?" The persistence was vindicated, gloriously vindicated. Today, dozens of well-known commercial systems use the ideas and techniques developed in SMART. As a matter of fact, systems old or new are being dismissed 787
788
In Memoriam
as archaic in industry and on the Intemet if they don't incorporate such features. Another of Gerry's enduring legacies are his students, over 20 of whom wrote doctoral dissertations under his guidance. They became leaders in information retrieval at many institutions. In turn, they 'begat' top students and graduates of their own---educational grandchildren of Gerald Salton. Gerry's educational legacy will thus continue. Gerry was a prolific writer: six books on information retrieval and related topics, all leading texts; over 150 research articles; some 60 conference papers, presented at conferences in the U.S. and in many other countries; and over a hundred book reviews and editorials. Gerry was also a regular contributor as author and referee to this journal. He is probably the most cited author in information science in general, and in information retrieval in particular. Selflessly, he gave his time, energy and talents to professional associations: primarily the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the American Society for Information Science (ASIS), and the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS). At various times he was the Editor-in-Chief of leading journals of the ACM: ACM Communications, ACM Journal, and ACM Transaction on Database Systems. He wrote many reviews forACM Computing Reviews. For seven years he served as a member on the ACM Council, and for three years on the ASIS Board of Directors. For several years he was the Chair of Section T of the AAAS. He was among the founders of ACM's Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval (SIGIR)--he was very active in the group till his death, serving as its Chair in the formative years 1979-1983. Not surprisingly he received great many honors and awards, among them: Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962; Best JASIS Paper Award in 1970; Best Information Science Book Award from ASIS in 1975; Award for Outstanding Contribution from SIGIR in 1983; Alexander Humbolt Senior Scientist Award in 1988 (Federal Republic of Germany); ASIS Award of Merit in 1989; Election as ACM Fellow in 1995. Gerry exemplified the qualities of the traditional, eminent professor. He demanded the highest scholarship of himself and of his students. He was learned in many subjects from humanities to sciences. He was highly appreciative of music, rarely missing a Cornell concert; for years he was a member of the Comell University Faculty Committee on Music. He sailed, swam, and ice-skated. He was a great supporter of Comell ice hockey. He was also a nature lover he skied regularly, downhill and alpine, in Ithaca and in Aspen, Colorado, where he had a cottage. He loved flowers and spent much time in his garden. It was a treat to listen to Gerry present or debate at professional meetings. He held strong views and presented them forcefully, but never strayed from the ideas, scientific and professional. The last meeting he attended was fittingly called "Thirty Years of Information Retrieval at Cornell: a SMART Celebration". It was held at Cornell, Ithaca, N.Y. on 22 April 1995. A number of leaders in the field, many of them Gerry's students, reflected on the achievements, problems and future directions for research and development in information retrieval. It was a stimulating occasion, offering the deepest thinking in the field. Gerry made several comments: He compared the success of approaches to text processing as developed in information retrieval to the hype and relative failure of approaches to rule-based knowledge bases in expert systems, over the last 30 years. And when discussing the relation between research and industry he remarked: "Why should we in the universities follow industry? If we do good work they will come to us". He was right. For close to four decades he did do good work. They came to him. We celebrate the achievements of Gerald Salton. We in the field of information science are all in debt to Gerry. He is one of the giants on whose shoulders we all stand. TEFKO SARACEVIC, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief Information Processing & Management
Information Processing& Management.Vol.31, No. 6, pp. 787-788. 1995 ElsevierScienceLtd. Printed in Great Britain
IN MEMORIAM GERALD SALTON (1927-1995) Professor of Computer Science, Cornell University Information science has lost one of its towering figures, a pioneer in the development and testing of advanced information retrieval techniques and systems. Modern information retrieval owes its very existence to Gerry, as he was fondly known in the field. The scope of his accomplishments and the impact of his work on the evolution of information retrieval is enomaous. A full account would require an analysis of Gerry's contributions in the context of his times from the late 1950s to the very time of his recent death. We can only provide a glimpse here. Gerry was bom on 8 March 1927 in Nurenberg, Germany, but the Second World War forced his family to flee Germany--he and his brother were led across the border at night to elude German guards. He came to the United States in 1947, and became a citizen in 1952. He graduated in mathematics from Brooklyn College in 1950 and received a masters degree from the same college in 1952. Then on to Harvard, where he received his doctorate in 1958. Gerry was the last doctoral student of Howard Aiken, and one of the first programmers for the Harvard's MARK IV computer. He stayed at Harvard as instructor (1958-1960) and then assistant professor till he moved to Cornell in 1965. At Comell University he was among the founders of the Department of Computer Science. Gerry stayed at Cornell for the rest of his life. Gerry is identified with SMART (System for the Manipulation and Retrieval of Text), which was also affectionately referred to as 'Salton's Magical Retriever of Text.' Early in his career he became interested in natural language processing and in its association with information retrieval. He conceived of SMART at Harvard, it came to full bloom at Cornell. SMART was and still is a computer-based laboratory where ideas about new and differing information retrieval algorithms and techniques could be tested, compared, refined, and improved under controlled conditions. SMART consisted of a variety of files of documents, together with queries and relevance judgements on which various methods for representation and searching of texts in documents and queries could be applied and evaluated using common criteria and measures. Many of today's information retrieval techniques applied to texts and natural language processing came out of SMART and the experiments conducted by Gerry and his students. These include: sophisticated statistical schemes for distinguishing between important and less important terms in texts and as related to queries; the vector space model for information retrieval; relevance feedback techniques for query optimization; and many others. He was generous with providing SMART files and programs to researchers around the globe, so SMART-based experiments were conducted not only at Cornell, but also in many other institutions in a number of countries. Today's experiments conducted under auspices of TREC (Text Retrieval Conference) follow directly from experiences with SMART. Along with Cyril Cleverdon and his Cranfield tests of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gerry and his 30-year work on SMART, established a finn tradition of experimentation and evaluation in information retrieval. He was not alone in establishing information science as an empirical and experiment-based science (in addition to being a profession), but he was more responsible than anybody else for the fortunate development of experimental tradition. As a result, introduction and development of new ideas in information retrieval is inexorably connected with their evaluation under rigid experimental conditions. Moreover, this evaluation is not restricted only to their computability and computing efficiency, but also to users and use, as implied by the application of relevance as the central criterion. Of course, there are many problems about relevance (or any similar criteria associated with "messy" human cognitive structures and judgements), but it supplies the right context and tool for evaluating and operating information retrieval systems, which are fundamentally social systems based on human communication. Gerry may have not expressed it in this way, but he certainly proceeded from these premises. He has helped in a major way to root modern information retrieval on this foundation. The 1970s and 1980s were 'feast' years for development and phenomenal growth of information industry based on the IR techniques developed in the 1950s and 1960s. But they were 'famine' years for the introduction and translation of more modern techniques developed under SMART and other similar projects into industry. Gerry and many of his colleagues persisted, despite many discouraging questions during the what he called 'lean decades' on the theme: "How come nobody is buying this in 'real life'?" The persistence was vindicated, gloriously vindicated. Today, dozens of well-known commercial systems use the ideas and techniques developed in SMART. As a matter of fact, systems old or new are being dismissed 787
788
In Memoriam
as archaic in industry and on the Intemet if they don't incorporate such features. Another of Gerry's enduring legacies are his students, over 20 of whom wrote doctoral dissertations under his guidance. They became leaders in information retrieval at many institutions. In turn, they 'begat' top students and graduates of their own---educational grandchildren of Gerald Salton. Gerry's educational legacy will thus continue. Gerry was a prolific writer: six books on information retrieval and related topics, all leading texts; over 150 research articles; some 60 conference papers, presented at conferences in the U.S. and in many other countries; and over a hundred book reviews and editorials. Gerry was also a regular contributor as author and referee to this journal. He is probably the most cited author in information science in general, and in information retrieval in particular. Selflessly, he gave his time, energy and talents to professional associations: primarily the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the American Society for Information Science (ASIS), and the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS). At various times he was the Editor-in-Chief of leading journals of the ACM: ACM Communications, ACM Journal, and ACM Transaction on Database Systems. He wrote many reviews forACM Computing Reviews. For seven years he served as a member on the ACM Council, and for three years on the ASIS Board of Directors. For several years he was the Chair of Section T of the AAAS. He was among the founders of ACM's Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval (SIGIR)--he was very active in the group till his death, serving as its Chair in the formative years 1979-1983. Not surprisingly he received great many honors and awards, among them: Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962; Best JASIS Paper Award in 1970; Best Information Science Book Award from ASIS in 1975; Award for Outstanding Contribution from SIGIR in 1983; Alexander Humbolt Senior Scientist Award in 1988 (Federal Republic of Germany); ASIS Award of Merit in 1989; Election as ACM Fellow in 1995. Gerry exemplified the qualities of the traditional, eminent professor. He demanded the highest scholarship of himself and of his students. He was learned in many subjects from humanities to sciences. He was highly appreciative of music, rarely missing a Cornell concert; for years he was a member of the Comell University Faculty Committee on Music. He sailed, swam, and ice-skated. He was a great supporter of Comell ice hockey. He was also a nature lover he skied regularly, downhill and alpine, in Ithaca and in Aspen, Colorado, where he had a cottage. He loved flowers and spent much time in his garden. It was a treat to listen to Gerry present or debate at professional meetings. He held strong views and presented them forcefully, but never strayed from the ideas, scientific and professional. The last meeting he attended was fittingly called "Thirty Years of Information Retrieval at Cornell: a SMART Celebration". It was held at Cornell, Ithaca, N.Y. on 22 April 1995. A number of leaders in the field, many of them Gerry's students, reflected on the achievements, problems and future directions for research and development in information retrieval. It was a stimulating occasion, offering the deepest thinking in the field. Gerry made several comments: He compared the success of approaches to text processing as developed in information retrieval to the hype and relative failure of approaches to rule-based knowledge bases in expert systems, over the last 30 years. And when discussing the relation between research and industry he remarked: "Why should we in the universities follow industry? If we do good work they will come to us". He was right. For close to four decades he did do good work. They came to him. We celebrate the achievements of Gerald Salton. We in the field of information science are all in debt to Gerry. He is one of the giants on whose shoulders we all stand. TEFKO SARACEVIC, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief Information Processing & Management