Former Palisadian Jeffrey Elman Dies at 70

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Jeffrey Elman, an American psycholinguist and professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego who attended Palisades High School, died at the age of 70.

Elman’s work was significant to the understanding of how languages are acquired and also, once the language is acquired, how sentences are comprehended.

“Elman was a pioneer in artificial neural networks and an internationally recognized scholar in the field of language processing and learning,” a statement from UCSD read. “His early TRACE model of speech perception, with Jay McClelland, remains one of the major theories in the field. In 1990 he developed the Simple Recurrent Network architecture—the so-called ‘Elman net’—that is today widely used in many fields to model behaviors that unfold over time. In recent research, he was using a wide range of scientific methods, including computational simulations, neuroimaging and behavioral measures.”

Elman grew up in the Asilomar Bluffs area and graduated from Pali High in 1965.

“He was a really nice guy, very smart but down to earth, with a nice quiet, soothing voice,” his childhood neighbor, Tom Cluster, told the Palisadian-Post.

Cluster shared that when he moved to the Palisades in 1962 from Van Nuys, Elman welcomed him into his group of friends, which called themselves “The Monticello Society.”

“Years later Jeff laughed at the memory of this group,” Cluster said. “I think in retrospect, he found it a tad pretentious. He invited me into the club and they adopted me as one of their own.”

After graduating from Pali High, Elman attended Harvard University, where he graduated in 1969. In 1977, received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin.

He joined the faculty at UCSD in 1977, where he was well known for teaching and connecting with students. There, Elman helped popularize the world’s first Department of Cognitive Science in 1986.

“Elman was an original and prolific scholar, deeply committed to research and to education at all levels,” the statement read. “He served as dean of the Division of Social Sciences from 2006 to 2014. He mentored many students and, as an accomplished administrator, he helped to expand UC San Diego’s educational and research programs. He will be deeply missed by the department, the Division of Social Sciences and the university.”

Elman’s father, Irving, was a playwright and a movie/TV writer and producer, who collaborated with Elman’s mother, his wife Tex.

Elman died on the UCSD campus near the Faculty Club on June 28. According to his ex-wife, Margaret Elman, he had a heart condition and passed away from natural causes, the San Diego Tribune reported.