Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC)
Kenneth Ford is Founder and Director of the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC), a statewide not-for-profit research institute of the State University System of Florida. IHMC research partners have included: DARPA, NASA, NSF, Navy, Army, NIMA, Air Force, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Honda, Nokia, Fujitsu, IDEO, Lockheed, Raytheon, and Boeing to name but a few.
Ford is the author of hundreds of scientific papers and six books. Ford's research interests include: artificial intelligence, cognitive science, human-centered computing, and entrepreneurship in government and academia. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Tulane University. He is Emeritus Editor-in-Chief of AAAI/MIT Press, involved in the editing of several journals, and is a Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) Associate. Ford has received local and national teaching awards. Dr. Ford is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and a member of the IEEE Computer Society.
In January 1997, Dr. Ford was asked by NASA to develop and direct its new Center of Excellence in Information Technology at the Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. He served as Associate Center Director and Director of NASA's Center of Excellence in Information Technology. In July 1999, Dr. Ford was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal. That same year, Dr. Ford returned to private life and to the IHMC.
Dr. Ford has served on numerous corporate and government boards. In October of 2002, President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Ford to serve on the National Science Board. His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate in March of 2003.
In 2004, Ford was the recipient of the Pensacola Area Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year Award for the growth of IHMC and for its restructuring as a not-for- profit public research institute. Also, in 2004 Florida Trend Magazine selected Dr. Ford as one of Florida's 4 most influential citizens working in academia. In September 2005, Dr. Ford received the Doctor Honoris Causas from the University of Bordeaux. Also in 2005, Dr. Ford was appointed and sworn in as a member of the Air Force Science Advisory Board. In June 2007, Dr. Ford was appointed to the NASA Advisory Council. In July of 2008, Dr. Ford received the 2008 Robert S. Englemore Memorial Award, honoring research excellence in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).