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Wendy G. Lehnert

headshot
emeritus
Position: 
Professor Emerita

Biography

B.A. (mathematics) Portland State University (1972). M.A. (mathematics) Yeshiva University (1974). Ph.D.(computer science) Yale University (1977). M.A.O.M (Oriental medicine) New England School of Acupuncture (2008). Professor Lehnert joined the faculty at Yale in 1977 where she held a joint appointment in Computer Science and Psychology. In 1982, Professor Lehnert left Yale to join the Department of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts where she specialized in natural language processing and cognitive models of human thought processes. In the 1990's Professor Lehnert was a pioneer in the area of information extraction from text and natural language processing performance evaluations. Most recently, Professor Lehnert has been investigating traditional Chinese medicine as a model of memory-intensive reasoning and problem solving. As a result of her studies in this area, Professor Lehnert is licensed to practice acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine in the state of Massachusetts.

Activities & Awards

In 1984 Professor Lehnert received the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation in recognition for her work in artificial intelligence, and in 1991 she was elected Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. In 1993 Professor Lehnert served as a Program Co-Chair for the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. In 1996, she was honored as a UMass Amherst Distinguished Faculty Lecturer and received the Chancellor's Medal. Professor Lehnert has served on scientific advisory boards for the National Science Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, and has served as a member of the Information Science and Technology Committee for the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense. Professor Lehnert has been elected to the membership of the Board of Counselors for the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, as well as the Governing Board for the Cognitive Science Society, and she has also served as a senior editor for Cognitive Science. She has published nine books and over 100 journal articles, conference papers and book chapters.