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Richard Sutton

Professor, Faculty of Science - Computing Science, University of Alberta

  • Professor, Faculty of Science - Computing Science, University of Alberta1
  • Chief Scientific Advisor, Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)42

Richard (Rich) Sutton is a Professor of Computing Science at the University of Alberta. In 2017 Sutton co-founded Google DeepMind Alberta, the company's first international research lab, whose office closed in 2023; the university's March 2025 news release also describes Sutton as chief scientific advisor at Amii and an Amii fellow. With Andrew Barto, Sutton co-authored the 1998 textbook "Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction". Sutton is also first author of "The Alberta Plan for AI Research" (2022).123

At a glance

Current roles
Professor, Faculty of Science - Computing Science +1 more
Sector
University
Education
Stanford
Work listed
2
Honors
5
Sources cited
4
Profile reviewed

Career

Sutton completed a PhD in computer science at the University of Massachusetts in 1984, and met long-time collaborator Andrew Barto there. At the University of Alberta, Sutton is a professor of computing science, founded the Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Intelligence (RLAI) Lab, and held the iCORE/AITF Chair in Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Intelligence until 2018.142

In 2017, Sutton co-founded DeepMind Alberta, Google DeepMind's first international research lab, and continued research in Alberta after Google closed the Edmonton office in 2023. That year, Sutton began working with John Carmack's Keen Technologies on artificial general intelligence, and Amii lists Sutton as founder of the Openmind Research Institute. At Amii, Sutton is chief scientific advisor, a fellow and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair.24

Research

Sutton's contributions to reinforcement learning include the theory of temporal-difference learning, the actor-critic (policy gradient) class of algorithms, the Dyna architecture for integrating learning, planning and reacting, the Horde architecture, and gradient and emphatic temporal-difference algorithms. Current work seeks an empirically grounded approach to knowledge representation based on prediction.4

With long-time collaborator Andrew Barto, Sutton wrote the textbook "Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction", now in its second edition, and the two share the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award for establishing and advancing the field. "The Alberta Plan for AI Research" (2022), with Michael Bowling and Patrick Pilarski, sets out a research program for long-lived agents that learn to predict and control their sensory input.423

Work and contributions

  • Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction Published research

    Co-author with Andrew Barto of the 1998 textbook, as stated in the University of Alberta's March 2025 news release.2

  • The Alberta Plan for AI Research Published research

    First author, with Michael Bowling and Patrick M. Pilarski, of the 2022 paper describing the Alberta Plan approach to artificial intelligence research.3

Timeline

  1. Completed a PhD in computer science at the University of Massachusetts.1
  2. Co-founded DeepMind Alberta, Google DeepMind's first international research lab.2
  3. Received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association.4
  4. Posted "The Alberta Plan for AI Research" as first author.3
  5. Began working with John Carmack at Keen Technologies on artificial general intelligence.4
  6. Was named, with Andrew Barto, a recipient of the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award.2

Other documented roles

Roles the sources document that are not confirmed as current.

Honors and recognition

  • ACM A.M. Turing Award (with Andrew Barto) · Association for Computing Machinery, 202424
  • Fellow of the Royal Society · Royal Society, 20214
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada · Royal Society of Canada, 20164
  • AAAI Fellow · Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence4
  • Lifetime Achievement Award · Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association, 20184

Where they work

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References

4 sources · profile reviewed Oct 21, 2026 · data updated Oct 21, 2026

  1. Rich Sutton, PhD — University of Alberta directoryUniversity of Alberta · Official page · accessed Oct 21, 2026
  2. U of A computing science professor & Amii fellow wins 'Nobel Prize in Computing' (news release)University of Alberta · Announcement · published Mar 10, 2025 · accessed Oct 21, 2026
  3. The Alberta Plan for AI Research (arXiv 2208.11173)arXiv · Paper · published Aug 23, 2022 · accessed Oct 21, 2026
  4. Richard S. Sutton — Amii profileAlberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) · Official page · accessed Oct 21, 2026