Edwina Rissland

Edwina Luane Rissland (also published as Edwina Luane Rissland Michener) is a retired American mathematician and computer scientist known for her work in knowledge representation, artificial intelligence, case-based reasoning, and legal applications of AI. She is a professor emerita at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences. After retiring, she has pursued photography and art curation.

Rissland majored in applied mathematics at Brown University, graduating in 1969. She earned a master's degree from Brandeis University in 1970 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT in 1977 under Seymour Papert. She joined the UMass Amherst faculty in 1979 and developed an interest in law after reading about US Supreme Court decisions. She was affiliated with Harvard Law School as a fellow (1982–1983) and lecturer (1985–1986). Rissland served two terms as a program director for artificial intelligence and cognitive science at the National Science Foundation (2003–2007, 2010–2012) and helped found the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law, later serving as its president. She retired in 2013.

Rissland was named a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in 1991. In 2023, she received the CodeX prize from Stanford's Center for Legal Informatics for her contributions to computational law, particularly the HYPO CBR system for legal case-based reasoning, developed with Kevin Ashley. Her publications include the textbook *Cognitive Science: An Introduction* and research on legal reasoning and AI applications in law.