Geoffrey Hinton receives an honorary doctorate from the university in 2011

A former University of Sussex artificial intelligence scientist, often called the ‘godfather of AI’, has been announced as the joint winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Physics. 

Geoffrey Hinton, currently an emeritus professor at the University of Toronto, was a post-doctoral researcher at Sussex in the late 1970s, where he developed his theories on neural networks and began to apply them to practical problems in computer science.  

He shares the prestigious prize, worth £810,000, with American John Hopfield, of the University of Princeton, for “foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks”. 

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences lists the benefits of their work, including improving climate modelling, the development of solar cells, and analysis of medical images.   

Professor Hinton, 76, who was involved with the Google Brain Project, but resigned in 2023 after warning AI systems could outsmart humans, told BBC news he was “flabbergasted” to receive the honour. 

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sasha Roseneil said: “The whole of the University of Sussex community extends our warmest congratulations to Professor Hinton on being recognized for his outstanding contribution to the field of machine learning and artificial neural networks. 

“From the earliest days of the University, Sussex played a foundational role in the development and practical application of AI, and we are honoured that Professor Hinton has been part of that history.” 

Professor Michael Luck, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, whose specialism is also in artificial intelligence, said: “Professor Hinton’s work has been genuinely ground-breaking and inspirational. He helped to lay the foundations for the most astonishing AI systems that bring enormous benefits to our world, and he is right to warn that we must also be careful to ensure that we have assurance over the behaviour of such systems, and that they are safe and trusted by society.”

Professor Hinton was made Honorary Doctor of Science at Sussex in 2011 at our summer graduation.

In presenting him at the ceremony, Professor John Carroll, who was then Head of Informatics, said: "Geoff began his research career at the University of Edinburgh in 1972, but in 1974 followed his PhD supervisor, Christopher Longuet-Higgins, to the former Department of Experimental Psychology at Sussex.  Geoff was awarded his PhD in 1978 for research into visual information processing, and stayed at Sussex in the Cognitive Studies Programme, investigating the nature of the mental images we construct when we visualize objects.

"Today he is probably the most influential machine learning researcher in the world.  Many of the techniques he developed are central to important computer-based applications including data mining, bioinformatics, digital security, speech recognition, text analysis, medical imaging and many more." 

The University is home to the Sussex Artificial Intelligence research centre, one of 11 Centres of Excellence at Sussex which conduct innovative and potentially transformative research. 

Professor Thomas Nowotny, Professor of Informatics and co-director of Sussex Artificial Intelligence, said: "I am excited to see Geoff Hinton, a former member of the Centre for Cognitive Science (COGS) and honorary doctor of Sussex winning the Nobel prize for his outstanding work on neural networks, including work done at Sussex. Congratulations, Geoff. We are proud to continue the COGS research tradition in the Sussex AI Centre of Excellence today."

Professor Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive & Computational Neuroscience, said “Many congratulations to Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield on receiving this most prestigious award. It is fantastic to see fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence recognised this way. I vividly remember meeting Geoff some years ago when he visited Sussex - where he did some of his postdoctoral work. He was and is a delight to talk to, incisive with his comments and clear and patient with his explanations. Our loss was Canada’s gain!”

Sussex has an impressive roster of former students and members of staff who have been awarded the Nobel prize. They include chemists Sir Harry Kroto, Sir John Cornforth, and Archer Martin; physicist Sir Anthony Leggett; and geneticist Sir Paul Nurse.