Anil Jain, a University Distinguished Professor and Douglas E. Zongker Endowed Professor in Michigan State University’s College of Engineering, has been awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Information and Communication Technologies category along with Michael I. Jordan of the University of California, Berkeley for “core contributions to machine learning by teaching computers to recognize patterns and make predictions based on large data sets. This research has unlocked new applications that have had a far-reaching impact on society.”

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards recognize and reward research excellence, highlighting the collaboration and interdisciplinary nature of research and cultural creation, especially contributions that have achieved broad impact due to their originality and significance in eight categories spanning basic scientific research, art and humanities. Twenty global researchers received awards this year.

Jain is a world-renowned expert in pattern recognition for his work devising algorithms to classify and cluster high-dimensional data, which he started in 1972. In the early 1990s, he realized the potential of a new type of computer processor, called Field Programmable Gate Arrays, or FPGA, for both enhancing fingerprint image quality and to compute the probability of two fingerprints matching. Jain’s group showed that by using FPGAs, fingerprint matching could be done 100 times faster than the prevailing methods at the time. This research led to six patents that were licensed by IBM. It was the beginning of Jain’s lab becoming a global leader in the field of fingerprint and facial identification.