- Works listed
- 2
- Paper, Book
- Honours
- 2
- Most recent 2024
- Profile views
- 0
- 0 followers
Andrew Barto is an American computer scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who, with his former student Richard Sutton, developed the foundations of reinforcement learning — how machines learn by trial and reward. They shared the 2024 Turing Award.
Biography
Education
Barto studied mathematics at the University of Michigan, where he earned his PhD in computer science in 1975.
Reinforcement learning
At the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1977, Barto led research on how an agent can learn to act by receiving rewards and penalties, drawing on psychology and neuroscience. With Sutton and Charles Anderson he introduced actor–critic methods in 1983.
The textbook
Barto and Sutton’s Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (1998; second edition 2018) became the standard text. Reinforcement learning powered DeepMind’s AlphaGo and is used to fine-tune chatbots with human feedback.
Recognition
Barto and Sutton received the 2024 Turing Award, announced in March 2025, for developing the conceptual and algorithmic foundations of reinforcement learning.
Timeline
-
1975
PhD from the University of Michigan
-
1977
Joins UMass Amherst
-
1983
Actor–critic paper with Sutton and Anderson
-
1998
Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction
-
2018
Second edition
-
2025
Turing Award announced
Notable works
-
1983
Neuronlike adaptive elements that can solve difficult learning control problems Paper
With Sutton and Anderson.
-
1998
Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction Book
With Richard Sutton.
Awards and honours
-
IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award
2004
-
Turing Award
2024
Did you know?
-
1
Richard Sutton was his doctoral student.
-
2
Their textbook is available free online.
-
3
Reinforcement learning helped AlphaGo beat the world Go champion.
Frequently asked
Who is Andrew Barto?
Andrew Barto is an American computer scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who, with his former student Richard Sutton, developed the foundations of reinforcement learning — how machines learn by trial and reward. They shared the 2024 Turing Award.
Where is Andrew Barto from?
Andrew Barto was born in United States.
What is Andrew Barto known for?
Andrew Barto is best known for Reinforcement learning; actor–critic methods; Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction; Turing Award 2024.
What awards has Andrew Barto received?
Notable honours include IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award (2004), Turing Award (2024).
References
- Andrew Barto — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Official website. www-all.cs.umass.edu. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Andrew Barto (Q4756294) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Andrew Barto”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Andrew Barto.” TrackFame, last updated 4 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/andrew-barto
Discussion 0
Sign in or create an account to join the discussion.
No comments yet — be the first.
More in Science
Science
Yann LeCun
French-American AI pioneer who invented convolutional neural networks
Born 1959
Science
Margaret Hamilton
MIT engineer who led the software for the Apollo Moon landings and coined “software engineering”
1936 – 2026
Science
Charles K. Kao
“Godfather of broadband” who showed glass fibres could carry light over long distances
1933 – 2018
Science
Guglielmo Marconi
Italian inventor who pioneered long-distance radio and won the Nobel Prize
1874 – 1937
Science
Martin Hellman
Stanford cryptographer who co-invented public-key cryptography
Born 1945
Science
Peter Naur
Danish computer scientist who edited the ALGOL 60 report and refined Backus–Naur form
1928 – 2016