Marvin Minsky (1927-2016), pioneering US computer and artificial intelligence scientist. Minsky studied at Harvard University before embarking on a distinguished career in artificial intelligence and robotics. In 1951, with a colleague, he designed and built the first neural network learning machine, modelled on human brain cells. He later founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and in 1985 co-founded MIT's Media Lab. He is the author of numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction, and inventor of the confocal scanning microscope. Photographed in 1995.