Lee Spector

Lee Spector is a Professor of Computer Science at Amherst College and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Previously, he taught at Hampshire College from 1992 to 2019, where he held roles including Dean of the School of Cognitive Science and Director of the Computational Intelligence Laboratory. He earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Oberlin College (1984) and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland (1992).

His research focuses on artificial intelligence, artificial life, evolutionary computation, and intersections with cognitive science, physics, and the arts. Notable contributions include work on genetic programming for music generation (e.g., GenBebop), quantum computing algorithms, and evolutionary robotics. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines and has authored over 100 publications, including the book Automatic Quantum Computer Programming: A Genetic Programming Approach (2004).

Spector has received prestigious awards such as the NSF Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars and gold medals in the GECCO Human Competitive Results contest. He also engages in public outreach, including an op-ed in The Boston Globe on digital evolution (2005).