Rodney Allen Brooks is the former Panasonic Professor of Robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 1986 he has authored a series of highly influential papers that have brought on a fundamental shift in artificial intelligence research.
Brooks formerly served as Panasonic Professor of Robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From July 1, 2003, until June 30, 2007, he was director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; prior to that, he was director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Brooks left MIT in 2008 to found a new company, Rethink Robotics (formerly Heartland Robotics), where he serves as chairman and Chief Technical Officer. He was also co-founder and Chief Technical Officer and sits on the Board of iRobot Corp.
He received a degree in mathematics from Flinders University of South Australia and a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1981 under the supervision of Thomas Binford. He has held research positions at Carnegie Mellon University and MIT and a faculty position at Stanford University. He joined the faculty of MIT in 1984.
