Alvy Ray Smith is best known for being the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios as well as Altamira. Smith was born in Mineral Wells, Texas, and he has earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University and while there, he created his first computer graphic. Smith then went on to earn his Ph.D. in computer science... read full bio
Venki Ramakrishnan is an British-American structural biologist who has previously earned the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath due to their work in the structure and function of the ribosome. Ramakrishnan was born in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India, and he was born to a family of scientists. Venki earned his B.S. in physics and went... read full bio
Edgar Perez is an American-Peruvian author, speaker, and consultant who is an expert on topics which include quantum computing, artificial intelligence, deep learning, cybersecurity and high-frequency trading. Perez was born in Lima, Peru, and he has earned a B.S. in Systems Engineering from Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria before going on to earn his Masters in Management from Universidad ESAN, making... read full bio
Kip Thorne is an American theoretical physicist who is best known for his contributions to astrophysics and gravitational physics. Thorne was born in Logan, Utah, and he has earned his B.S. from the California Institute of Technology before going on to earn his M.S. and Ph.D. from Princeton University. He then began his career working as an associate professor at... read full bio
Brad Templeton is a businessman, developer, and commentator who has been the founder of ClariNet, the director and chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the software developer leader of USENET and the Professor of Computing at Singularity University. Templeton was born in Canada and began to gain attention after he became founder and CEO of ClariNet Communications, which was one... read full bio
NASA aerospace engineer, Adam Steltzner, is the Chief Engineer of the Mars 2020 project. Steltzner has worked on several flight projects to Mars, including the Galileo, Cassini, Mars Pathfinder, and Mars Exploration Rovers. He has published a book, The Right Kind of Crazy: A True Story of Teamwork, Leadership, and High Stakes Innovation, which received acclaim from The Washington Post... read full bio
Edward O. Wilson, the legendary biologist, is widely considered the father of the modern environmental movement. Named one of America's 25 Most Influential People by TIME magazine, and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he has made a giant contribution to our understanding of the rich spectrum of Earth's biodiversity. In his lectures, he makes a persuasive, eloquent plea to government,... read full bio
Global education and exploration have undergone a revolution thanks to Robert Ballard, a true pioneer and visionary. He has used the effectiveness of distant learning to involve more than 1 million students and 25,000 educators each year, not just in the US but all over the world, through the celebrated JASON Project. This outstanding curriculum has transformed schools and stimulated... read full bio
Jared Diamond teaches geography to UCLA undergraduates; doing field research on the birds of New Guinea and other Southwest Pacific islands; writing books about human societies, aimed at the broad public; and promoting sustainable environmental policies, as a director of the international environmental organizations World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International. ... read full bio
Jason Silva is a Venuzuelan-American media artist, futurist, philosopher, keynote speaker and TV personality. He is the creator of Shots of Awe, a short film series of ""trailers for the mind"" that serve as philosophical espresso shots exploring innovation, technology creativity, futurism and the metaphysics of the imagination. Shots of Awe has received more than 13 million views on YouTube.... read full bio
Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. He is the author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. Nir founded two tech companies and has taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. Nir is also an advisor to several Bay Area start-ups, venture... read full bio
Best known as the creator of Google Ventures’ sprint process, Jake Knapp has advised over 100 startups including Nest, Slack, 23andMe, and Flatiron Health. During his time at Google he created Google Hangouts. Previously, he worked for Microsoft where he led design on Encarta. He has been featured in Fast Company, TechCrunch, and LifeHacker and is the author of Sprint:... read full bio
Tim Urban, the creator of the popular Wait But Why blog, is known for his head-spinning thinking, quirky graphics and signature stick figures within his speeches. He has written countless viral articles on subjects ranging form why we procrastinate to why we haven’t yet encountered alien life forms. But Wait Why has topped ten million unique visitors during peak months... read full bio
Avinash Kaushik is the “Digital Marketing Evangelist” for Google and the author of two bestsellers: Web Analytics 2.0, and Web Analytics: An Hour a Day. All of the proceeds from both books benefit The Smile Train, Doctors Without Borders and Ekal Vidyalaya. Kaushik is also the Co-Founder and Chief Education Officer of Market Motive. He is celebrated for his dynamic,... read full bio
Dr. David Ferrucci is an award-winning Artificial Intelligence researcher who most notably formed the IBM Watson team. He led the team from its creation all the way to its illustrious success when Watson conquered the greatest Jeopardy players of all time. In this history-making moment for AI, Watson delivered remarkable results that surpassed all expectations. Dr. Ferrucci went on to... read full bio
Thomas Frey is a speaker and American futurist. He is founder and Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the Westminster, Colorado DaVinci Institute. He has previously been an engineer with IBM for over 15 years. As a speaker, Frey has given speeches to NASA, Fortune 500 companies such as AT&T, Capital One, Boeing, Visa, Ford Motor Company, and many more.... read full bio
Rajat Paharia was the founder and Chief Product Officer of Bunchball, Inc. He is known as the father of gamification and founded Bunchball, which launched the social gaming and gamification industries. Paharia graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a B.A. in computer science. He then went on to earn his M.S. in computer science from Stanford University. Paharia started his career... read full bio
Jill Tarter is an American astronomer who is best known for her work on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. She is the former director of the Center for SETI Research and holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. She has been featured in Discover magazine as one of the 50 most important women in science.... read full bio
Yossi Vardi is an Israeli entrepreneur and investor who is one of Israel’s first high-tech entrepreneurs. He has founded and helped build numerous tech companies in fields such as software, energy, mobile, water technology, electro-optics and Internet. Vardi graduated from the Technion in Haifa with a B.Sc. in industrial management engineering and went on to earn his M.Sc in Operations... read full bio
Hugh Herr is an American biophysicist, engineer, and rock climber. Growing up, Herr was a prodigy rock climber and by only 8 years old he had scaled the face of the Mount Temple in the Canadian Rockies and at only 17, he was known to be one of the best climbers in the United States. After getting caught in a... read full bio
