Nat ion al Conference honors Alexander Lerner's 70th Birthday

A special session entitled "Future Directions In Artificial Intelligence" was held at the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Washington, D.C. in August. The session, chaired by Jack Minker, was held to honor Soviet cyberneticist Alexander Yankelovich Lerner's seventieth birthday. Minker described Dr. Lerner's contributions to science. Participants Saul Amarel, Nils Nilsson, John McCarthy and Patrick Winston gave a technical presentation, followed by questions from the audience. Following the session, 228 attendees signed a letter wishing Dr. Lerner a happy birthday, and 233 attendees signed a petition to be sent to Yuri Andropov of the Soviet Union requesting that Dr. Lerner be given permission to emigrate so that he may join his daughter and her family in Israel.