Azriel Rosenfeld

Professor Azriel Rosenfeld (February 19, 1931 – February 22, 2004) was an American Research Professor, a Distinguished University Professor, and Director of the Center for Automation Research at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, where he also held affiliate professorships in the Departments of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Psychology. He held a Ph.D. in mathematics from Columbia University (1957), rabbinic ordination (1952) and a Doctor of Hebrew Literature degree (1955) from Yeshiva University, honorary Doctor of Technology degrees from Linkoping University (1980) and Oulu University (1994), and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Yeshiva University (2000); he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the Technion (2004, conferred posthumously). He was a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (1994).

Professor Rosenfeld was a leading researcher in the field of computer image analysis. Over a period of nearly 40 years he made many fundamental and pioneering contributions to nearly every area of that field. He wrote the first textbook in the field (1969); was founding editor of its first journal (1972); and was co-chairman of its first international conference (1987). He published over 30 books and over 600 book chapters and journal articles, and directed nearly 60 Ph.D. dissertations.