Melanie Mitchell joins the Science and Security Board

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is proud to welcome Melanie Mitchell to its Science and Security Board (SASB). 

The SASB is a select group of globally recognized leaders with a specific focus on nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies. Setting the Doomsday Clock, providing the Bulletin with objective external perspectives, and connecting the organization to outside experts are just a few of the key responsibilities the SASB holds.  

Mitchell received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Michigan in 1990, and has held faculty or research positions at the University of Michigan, the Santa Fe Institute, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Oregon Graduate Institute, and Portland State University. She is currently Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. 

“I’m very excited to join the SASB and to help advise and contribute to the Bulletin, a publication I have long admired,” said Mitchell. “Now is a time of many novel and unique risks to humanity, and I hope my participation on the board will help contribute to a better understanding of these risks, especially in the case of artificial intelligence.” 

Mitchell’s current work bridges the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and complex systems. She is particularly interested in understanding the roles and mechanisms of abstraction, analogy-making, and reasoning in human and machine intelligence.  

“Mitchell’s perspective and voice will be invaluable as we work to inform the public about the positive and negative effects of emerging technologies on existential risks,” said Bulletin President and CEO Alexandra Bell. 

Melanie is the author or editor of six books and over 100 scholarly papers in the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and complex systems. Her 2009 book Complexity: A Guided Tour (Oxford University Press) won the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Award, and her 2019 book Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) was shortlisted for the 2023 Cosmos Prize for Scientific Writing.  

Melanie is the recipient of the Senior Scientific Award from the Complex Systems Society, the Distinguished Cognitive Scientist Award from UC Merced, and the Herbert A. Simon Award of the International Conference on Complex Systems. Her public outreach on science includes an online course, “Introduction to Complexity, an ongoing quarterly column for Science Magazine, a Substack newsletter on AI, and a 2024 podcast series titled “The Nature of Intelligence.” 

Learn more about the Science and Security Board here.