Zenon Walter Pylyshyn[1] FRSC (/ˈzɛnən pəˈlɪʃən/; 25 August 1937 – 6 December 2022) was a Canadian cognitive scientist and philosopher.
Pylyshyn's research generally involved the theoretical analysis of the nature of the human cognitive systems behind perception, imagination, and reasoning.
Pylyshyn was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Ukrainian immigrants Anna and Yuriy.
From 1985 to 1994 he directed the program in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
He held fellowships in the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, the MIT Center for Cognitive Science, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Canadian Psychological Association, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1998.