Andrew Barto

Accomplishments

• Received the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award with Richard Sutton for foundations of reinforcement learning.¹
• Professor emeritus at UMass Amherst Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences.²
• Co-author of the textbook Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction.¹

Reinforcement learning foundations

Barto and Sutton developed core ideas and algorithms of reinforcement learning, including temporal-difference learning frameworks that underpin much of modern RL research and applications. Their textbook "Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction" is a standard reference in the field.¹²

Turing Award

In March 2025, ACM announced Barto and Sutton as recipients of the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award for developing the conceptual and algorithmic foundations of reinforcement learning. The award carries a $1 million prize.¹²

Timeline

1. Mar 2025ACM announced Barto and Sutton as 2024 A.M. Turing Award recipients.¹²

Honors and recognition

• ACM A.M. Turing Award · Association for Computing Machinery, 2024¹

Where they work

• University of Massachusetts Amherst 2 people in the wiki

Related people

• Mohit IyyerAlso at University of Massachusetts Amherst
• David SilverReinforcement learning · Teaching and writing
• Michael L. LittmanReinforcement learning · Teaching and writing
• Aaron CourvilleTeaching and writing · Reinforcement learning
• Lilian WengTeaching and writing · Reinforcement learning
• Richard SuttonReinforcement learning · Teaching and writing
• Nathan LambertReinforcement learning · Teaching and writing
• Denny BritzReinforcement learning · Teaching and writing
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• Will KnightTeaching and writing