Richard M. Friedberg (born October 8, 1935) is a theoretical physicist who has contributed to a wide variety of problems in mathematics and physics. These include mathematical logic, number theory, solid state physics, general relativity, particle physics, quantum optics, genome research, and the foundations of quantum physics.
He has been recognized as a pioneer in machine learning since he wrote on "A learning machine" in 1958. IEEE Neural Networks Society awarded him in 2004, commenting 
Today. Friedberg’s initial words from 1958 “Machines would be more useful if they could learn to perform tasks for which they were not given precise methods” are the coin of the realm in computational intelligence. Entire disciplines of evolutionary computation are devoted to problems in automatic programming. Friedberg’s early work truly was a seminal contribution.
Early life.
Friedberg was born in Manhattan on Oct 8, 1935, the child of cardiologist Charles K. Friedberg, and playwright Gertrude Tonkonogy.
Friedberg studied at Harvard University for his bachelor's degree. He finished the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition in 1956 in the top five competitors.
In 1962 obtained a Ph.D. at Columbia University.
Academic work.
Friedberg solved a theoretical problem in recursion theory called Post's problem. In computability theory there is the decision problem of whether a given number is in a given set. Turing degree is a measure of the computational challenge. In 1944 Emil Post asked whether intermediate degrees exist on a certain interval of the Turing scale. Albert Muchnik (1956) and Friedberg (1957) proved the Friedberg–Muchnik theorem as the solution.
In 1968 Friedberg wrote an informal book on number theory titled "An Adventurer's Guide to Number Theory". In the book, he states, "The difference between the theory of numbers and arithmetic is like the difference between poetry and grammar."
Friedberg has investigated the issue of genome instability by developing a method of comparing genomes and establishing an edit distance between them. The genome variability was modeled with the Double Cut and Join Model. The chromosomal rearrangements may be block exchanges, translocation, or inversions. Friedberg has contributed to the task of efficiently sorting such permutations.
An 1840 work by Olinde Rodrigues has been reviewed by Friedberg who translated the work, provided modern vector notation, diagrams, and annotation of the text.
References.
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