Carnegie Mellon University

Richard Scheines

Richard Scheines

The Bess Family Dean of the Mariana Brown Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Bio

My research is on causal discovery, in particular the problem of learning about causation from statistical evidence. The theoretical and computational dimensions of this work have come to be called the TETRAD project, which represents nearly 25 years of collaboration with Clark Glymour, Peter Spirtes and many, many others. Building efficient and practically useful algorithms for causal discovery is as much computer science as philosophy, and thus I have a courtesy appointment in the Machine Learning Department.

I have also put a lot of effort into building and researching the effectiveness of educational software, ranging from intelligent proof tutors to virtual causality labs to a full semester course on Causal and Statistical Reasoning.   Because of this work I have a courtesy appointment in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute.

Education

Ph.D. - 1987: History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh

  • Thesis: Causal Models in the Social Sciences.
  • Advisor: Clark Glymour

Richard Scheines

Areas of Specialization

  • Philosophy of Science (Causation)
  • Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning)
  • Educational Computing (Online Courses and Virtual Labs)

Faculty Appointments

Dean, Mariana Brown Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University (2014 - )

Head, Department of Philosophy (2005-2014)

Professor, Department of Philosophy (2003 - )

Professor (secondary appointment):

Visiting Positions:

  • Visiting Scholar - Department of Philosophy, UC Berkeley, Spring, 2011.
  • Visiting Scholar - Program in Advanced Quantitative Methods in Educational Research, UCLA, Fall 2010.
  • Visiting Scholar (7/94 - 7/95) - Dept. of Statistics and Measurement Theory, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

Honors and Awards

  • Causality in Statistics Education Award – 2013. Richard Scheines and Steven Klepper (Honorable Mention).
  • Best Paper Award – 2013 6th International Workshop on Educational Data Mining, Memphis, TN.
  • Best Paper Award – 2008 1st International Workshop on Educational Data Mining, Montreal, Canada.

Professional Activity

National Academies of Science Committees

  • National Research Council: Committee to Review the EPA’s IRIS Process (2012-2013)
  • Institute of Medicine: Committee on Evaluation of the VA's Presumptive Disability Decision-Making Process (2006-2007)
  • Institute of Medicine: Committee on the Effects of Food Marketing on the Diets of Children and Youth (2004 – 2005)
  • Institute of Medicine: Workshop on Estimating the Contributions of Liefestyle-Related Factors to Preventable Death (Dec. 2004)

Policy Panels

  • Health Effects Institute, Strategic Evaluation of Future Research Panel, Boston, MA
  • ILSI North America, Carbohydrates Committee Meeting, Washington DC

Publications

Books (Selected)

  • National Research Council. Review of EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Process (2014). The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
  • Improving the Presumptive Disability Decision-Making Process (2007). Committee on Evaluation of the Presumptive Disability Decision-Making Process for Veterans, Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science, J. Samet, and C. Bodurow, editors. The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.
  • Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity, (2006).Committee on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth, Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science,  The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.
  • Causation, Prediction, and Search (2000), 2nd edition, P. Spirtes, C. Glymour, and R. Scheines, MIT Press, Boston
  • Discovering Causal Structure: Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Science, and Statistical Modeling (1987), C. Glymour, R. Scheines, P. Spirtes, and K. Kelly. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.
  • TETRAD II: Tools for Causal Discovery (1994), R. Scheines, P. Spirtes, C. Glymour, and C. Meek, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, N.J.

Papers (Selected)

Philosophy/Methodology/Theory

Causation and Statistics - Reviews/Handbook/Encyclopedia Articles

Causation & Statistics - Applications

Education / Educational Computing / Educational Data Mining

Software (Selected)