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Robert J. Marks II

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Robert Jackson Marks II (born August 25th, 1950) is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University. From 1977 to 2003, he was on the faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle. Marks specializes in image intelligence, optical computing, and computational intelligence.[1]

Evolutionary Informatics

Marks has come under attack for his work with intelligent design advocate William A. Dembski on evolutionary informatics. Marks's web site on the topic, hosted on his faculty page on the Baylor server, was blocked by the Baylor administration [2]. The site is now hosted on a third party server[3]. Evolutionary informatics is the fusion of the engineering fields of information theory and evolutionary computation. On the site removed by Baylor University, Marks and Dembski were exploring whether or not evolutionary processes can create information. Two of the three papers on the original site were moved to the third party site. The third paper was removed apparently after critics pointed to a software bug critical to the paper's conclusion[3].

The web-site controversy

The Baylor student newspaper quotes Baylor saying Marks's site was removed because it contained "unapproved research"[4]. The University is also quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education as claiming the web site was removed for procedural reasons[2].

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has established criteria for the removal of faculty web sites. Foremost, faculty web sites "should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution" [5]. According to the AAUP, a simple disclaimer for personal faculty web sites, including faculty who might be a "Holocaust-denier" or a "gay-basher", [5] meets this goal. Marks's original Baylor site had no such disclaimer. An offer by Marks to include the AAUP disclaimer and remove Baylor's name from the site was not sufficient to have his web site reinstated[6][need quotation to verify].

William A. Dembski has opined "This is a big story, perhaps the biggest story yet of academic suppression relating to ID" [7] The Discovery Institute, an outspoken advocate of intelligent design, has awarded Marks its Banned Item of the Year Award.[8] The award was given soon after Baylor's first celebration of Banned Books Week. [9]

Marks has not spoken publicly about the removal of his web site opting, instead, to speak through an attorney [10].

Technical Contributions

Robert J. Marks II specializes in computational intelligence and signal analysis. With his colleagues at the University of Washington, he was the first to apply an artificial neural network to forecast power demands for utilities in 1991[11]. Six years later neural networks were being used by 32 major North American utilities[12].

Marks and his colleagues developed algorithms for real time identification of placement of radioactive seeds in cancerous prostates[13][14]. For this work, he was a co-recipient of the Judith Stitt Award from the American Brachytherapy Society[15].

Marks is also a co-recipient of a NASA Tech Brief for development of power efficient communication in wireless arrays[16]Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Eleven of Marks's 250+ publications have been published in collections of seminal works[17][18]

Marks authored the first text devoted to the sampling theorem popularized in the seminal 1948 paper by Claude Shannon founding information theory[17][15][19].

Marks served as the first President of the IEEE Neural Networks Council[15]. He was named the organization's Charter President, an honorary title[17]. The organization was renamed the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society in 2004.

Religious Activities

Marks is an evangelical Christian and a self described "servant of Jesus Christ."[17]. He served as the faculty adviser to the University of Washington's chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ for fifteen years[17].

Marks has made science oriented Christian apologetics presentations[20] internationally. Venues include Poland, Japan, Moscow, Canada, and Siberia[15][17].

Marks was an outspoken advocate for Guillermo Gonzalez during Gonzalez's tenure battle at Iowa State University[21]

Books by Robert J. Marks II

  • R. D. Reed and R.J. Marks II, Neural Smithing: Supervised Learning in Feedforward Artificial Neural Networks, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, (1999).
  • M. Palaniswami, Y. Attikiouzel, R.J. Marks II, David Fogel and Toshio Fukuda; Editors, Computational Intelligence: A Dynamic System Perspective, IEEE Press, (1995).
  • R.J. Marks II, Editor, Fuzzy Logic Technology and Applications, IEEE Technical Activities Board, Piscataway, (1994).
  • J.Zurada, R.J. Marks II and C.J. Robinson; Editors, Computational Intelligence: Imitating Life, (IEEE Press, 1994).
  • R.J. Marks II, Introduction to Shannon Sampling and Interpolation Theory, Springer-Verlag, (1991).[1]
  • M.A. El-Sharkawi and R. J. Marks II, Editors, Applications of Neural Networks to Power Systems, IEEE Press, Piscataway, (1991).

See also


References

  1. ^ http://web.ecs.baylor.edu/faculty/marks/Marks/Bob/Marks-.html
  2. ^ a b Elizabeth F. Farrell, Baylor U. Removes a Web Page Associated With Intelligent Design From Its Site, The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 6, 2007. http://chronicle.com/subscribe/login?url=/daily/2007/09/2007090406n.htm
  3. ^ a b http://www.EvoInfo.org
  4. ^ Claire St. Amant, "New intelligent design conflict hits BU", The Baylor Lariat, September 11, 2007. http://www.baylor.edu/Lariat/news.php?action=story&story=46756
  5. ^ a b "Academic Freedom and Electronic Communications," AAUP Committee Report, http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/policydocs/contents/electcomm-stmt.htm
  6. ^ Mark Bergin, "Not so fast. Baylor’s treatment of an ID-advancing research lab has shifted from friendly to fire," World Magazine, September 15, 2007. http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13312
  7. ^ Erin Roach, "I.D. rift hits Baylor again", Baptist Press, Sep 5, 2007, http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?Id=26372
  8. ^ Anika Smith, "Banned Item of the Year", The Discovery Institute http://www.idthefuture.com/2007/10/banned_item_of_the_year.html
  9. ^ "Baylor to mark its first-ever Banned Books Week," Waco Herald Tribune, http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/10/01/10012007wacbannedbooks.html
  10. ^ John Hugh Gilmore, "Mob rule, not academic freedom, at Baylor," Waco Herald Tribune, http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2007/10/07/10072007wacgilmore.html
  11. ^ D.C. Park, M.A. El-Sharkawi, R.J. Marks II, L.E. Atlas & M.J. Damborg, "Electric load forecasting using an artificial neural network", IEEE Transactions on Power Engineering, vol.6, pp.442-449 (1991).
  12. ^ A. Khotanzad, R. Afkhami-Rohani, Lu Tsun-Liang, A. Abaye, M. Davis, D.J. Maratukulam, "ANNSTLF-a neural-network-based electric load forecasting system," IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, Volume 8, Issue 4, Jul 1997 pp. 835-846.
  13. ^ S. Narayanan, P.S. Cho and R.J. Marks II, "Fast Cross-Projection Algorithm for Reconstruction of Seeds in Prostate Brachytherapy", Med. Phys. 29 (7), July 2002, pp.1572-1579.
  14. ^ S. Narayanan, P.S. Cho and R.J. Marks II, "Three-dimensional seed reconstruction from an incomplete data set for prostate brachytherapy", Phys. Med. Biol., vol.49, pp.3483-3494 (2004).
  15. ^ a b c d Marks' CV http://web.ecs.baylor.edu/faculty/marks/Marks/CV/cv.htm
  16. ^ NASA Recognizes Baylor Engineer For Innovative Technology http://www.baylor.edu/pr/news.php?action=story&story=5781
  17. ^ a b c d e f Baylor University's Biography of Robert J. Marks II http://www.baylor.edu/provost/index.php?id=9033
  18. ^ Marks's Publications. http://web.ecs.baylor.edu/faculty/marks/REPRINTS/Marks-Pubs.htm
  19. ^ Robert J. Marks II, Introduction to Shannon Sampling and Interpolation Theory, Springer-Verlag, (1991)
  20. ^ http://web.ecs.baylor.edu/faculty/marks/Marks/ChristainFacultyNetwork/index_apologetics.htm
  21. ^ Science Professor Expresses Astonishment at Iowa State's Denial of Tenure to Gonzalez, Highlights Citations to Gonzalez's Research, http://web.ecs.baylor.edu/faculty/marks/Marks/P/Articles/gonzalez/Gonzalez.htm
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