29 Facts About Seymour Papert

Seymour Aubrey Papert was a South African-born American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, who spent most of his career teaching and researching at MIT.

Seymour Papert was one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, and of the constructionist movement in education.

Seymour Papert was co-inventor, with Wally Feurzeig and Cynthia Solomon, of the Logo programming language.

Seymour Papert then went on to receive a second doctorate, in mathematics, at the University of Cambridge, supervised by Frank Smithies.

Seymour Papert worked as a researcher in a variety of places, including St John's College, Cambridge, the Henri Poincare Institute at the University of Paris, the University of Geneva, and the National Physical Laboratory in London before becoming a research associate at MIT in 1963.

Seymour Papert held this position until 1967, when he became professor of applied math and was made co-director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by its founding director Professor Marvin Minsky, until 1981; he served as Cecil and Ida Green professor of education at MIT from 1974 to 1981.

Seymour Papert worked on learning theories, and was known for focusing on the impact of new technologies on learning in general, and in schools as learning organizations in particular.

At MIT, Seymour Papert went on to create the Epistemology and Learning Research Group at the MIT Architecture Machine Group which later became the MIT Media Lab.

Seymour Papert had worked with Piaget at the University of Geneva from 1958 to 1963 and was one of Piaget's proteges; Piaget himself once said that "no one understands my ideas as well as Seymour Papert".

Seymour Papert has rethought how schools should work, based on these theories of learning.

Seymour Papert used Piaget's work in his development of the Logo programming language while at MIT.

Seymour Papert created Logo as a tool to improve the way children think and solve problems.

Seymour Papert was one of the principals for the One Laptop Per Child initiative to manufacture and distribute The Children's Machine in developing nations.

Seymour Papert collaborated with the construction toy manufacturer Lego on their Logo-programmable Lego Mindstorms robotics kits, which were named after his groundbreaking 1980 book.

Seymour Papert became a political and anti-apartheid activist early in his life in South Africa.

Seymour Papert was a leading figure in the revolutionary socialist circle around Socialist Review while living in London in the 1950s.

Seymour Papert was a prominent activist against South African apartheid policies during his university education.

Seymour Papert was married to Dona Strauss, and later to Androula Christofides Henriques.

Seymour Papert, received a serious brain injury when struck by a motor scooter on 5 December 2006 while crossing the street with colleague Uri Wilensky when they were both attending the 17th International Commission on Mathematical Instruction Study conference in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Seymour Papert underwent emergency surgery to remove a blood clot at the French Hospital of Hanoi before being transferred in a complex operation by Swiss Air Ambulance Bombardier Challenger Jet to Boston, Massachusetts.

Seymour Papert was moved to a hospital closer to his home in January 2007, but then developed sepsis which damaged a heart valve, which was later replaced.

Seymour Papert died at his home in Blue Hill, Maine, on 31 July 2016.

Seymour Papert's work has been used by other researchers in the fields of education and computer science.

Seymour Papert influenced the work of Uri Wilensky in the design of NetLogo and collaborated with him on the study of knowledge restructurations, as well as the work of Andrea diSessa and the development of "dynaturtles".

Seymour Papert influenced the research of Idit Harel Caperton, coauthoring articles and the book Constructionism, and chairing the advisory board of the company MaMaMedia.

Seymour Papert influenced Alan Kay and the Dynabook concept, and worked with Kay on various projects.

Seymour Papert won a Guggenheim fellowship in 1980, a Marconi International fellowship in 1981, the Software Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994, and the Smithsonian Award from Computerworld in 1997.

Seymour Papert has been called by Marvin Minsky "the greatest living mathematics educator".

Today, as MIT continues to expand its reach and deepen its work in digital learning, I am particularly grateful for Seymour Papert's groundbreaking vision, and we hope to build on his ideas to open doors to learners of all ages, around the world.