MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG is a Johns Hopkins alumnus, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, World Health Organization Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Action, and former New York City mayor.
He is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who served as mayor of New York City from 2002-2013 after leading the company he started in 1981 for 20 years. Since leaving City Hall, he has resumed leadership of Bloomberg LP.
Bloomberg was elected mayor less than two months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Under his leadership, the city rebounded faster and stronger than expected on issues ranging from education to health to economic development.
A lifelong philanthropist, Bloomberg founded Bloomberg Philanthropies, which focuses on five main areas: public health, education, the environment, the arts, and government innovation. He also leads a number of bi-partisan coalitions on urgent issues, including climate change, illegal guns, immigration reform, and infrastructure investment. In January 2013, he made the $350 million gift that established the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships and provided undergraduate financial aid.
Bloomberg graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School.
Held by Rama Chellappa
RAMA CHELLAPPA is an expert in computer vision, pattern recognition, image and signal processing, machine learning, and biometrics who uses data, geometry, and physics to help computer systems interpret the visual world. Chellappa’s work has impacted smart cars, forensics, and 2D and 3D modeling of faces, humans, objects, and terrain, and has the potential to significantly improve diagnosis and treatment for patients spanning a wide range of diseases.
Chellappa’s research has shaped the field of facial recognition technology—developing detailed face models based on shape, appearance, texture, and bone and muscle structure. Under a recent program, Chellappa and his team developed a high-accuracy face recognition system that serves critical needs for federal and commercial sectors. The team has also worked on modeling facial expressions, with potential for a variety of medical applications. Some of Chellappa’s current projects focus on designing robust machine learning systems that can nimbly adapt to new environments and tasks, as well as on collaborating with mathematicians to build new models for deep learning, a subset of machine learning that maps data to decisions.
Chellappa joined Johns Hopkins University as a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in 2020 from the University of Maryland.
MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG is a Johns Hopkins alumnus, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, World Health Organization Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Action, and former New York City mayor.