Ben Taskar

Ben Taskar (March 3, 1977 – November 18, 2013) was a professor and researcher in the area of machine learning and applications to computational linguistics and computer vision. He was a Magerman Term Associate Professor for Computer and Information Science at University of Pennsylvania. He co-directed PRiML: Penn Research in Machine Learning, a joint venture between the School of Engineering and Wharton. He was also a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Annenberg Center for Public Policy. At the University of Washington, he held the Boeing Professorship.

Ben Taskar
Born	March 3, 1977
Died	November 18, 2013 (2013-11-19) (aged 36)
Alma mater	Stanford University
Known for	Statistical relational learning, Graphical models
Scientific career
Fields	Computer Science, Machine Learning and Statistical relational learning
Institutions	University of Pennsylvania, and University of Washington, Seattle
Doctoral advisor	Daphne Koller
Website	homes.cs.washington.edu/~taskar/

He was the first person to define Max-margin Markov networks and a pioneer in statistical relational learning.

Ben Taskar died of an apparent heart attack on the night of November 17, 2013, at the age of 36.

Bibliography

• Taskar, Ben A. (2007). Introduction to statistical relational learning. MIT Press.
• Taskar, Ben (2010). A Survey on Statistical Relational Learning. Springer.

Sources

• Ben Taskar memorial, UW CSE News
• UW computer science professor Ben Taskar passes away at 36 news, Geek Wire