Bert Kappen

Bert Kappen studied particle physics in Groningen, the Netherlands and
completed his PhD in this field in 1987 at the Rockefeller University
in New York. From 1987 until 1989 he worked as a scientist at the
Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Since
1989, he is conducting research on neural networks at the laboratory for
biophysics of the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Since 1997 he
is associate professor and since 2004 full professor at this university.
His group consists of 10 people and is involved in research on machine
learning (stochastic processes, learning algorithms, probabilistic
reasoning and several applications in collaboration with industry)
and computational neuroscience. His research was awarded in 1997 the
prestigious national PIONIER research subsidy. He co-founded in 1998
the company Smart Research, which sell prediction software based on
neural networks. He has developed a medical diagnostic expert system
called Promedas, which assists doctors to make accurate diagnosis of
patients. Promedas is currently being commercialized through a new
spin-off company. He is director of the Dutch Foundation for Neural
Networks (SNN), which coordinates research on neural networks in
the Netherlands. He organizes annual national conferences on machine
learning and artificial intelligence. He is author of approximately
120 publications.