Alexander D. Wissner-Gross

Dr. Alexander D. Wissner-Gross is an award-winning computer scientist, entrepreneur, advisor, and investor. A thought leader in the applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning to knowledge graph mining and the analysis of influence flows in social networks, he is a contributing author of the New York Times Science Bestseller, "This Idea Must Die", and the Amazon #1 New Release, "What to Think About Machines That Think". He has received 128 major distinctions, authored 23 publications, been granted 24 issued, pending, and provisional patents, and founded, managed, and advised 7 technology companies with combined exits of over $600 million. In 1998 and 1999, respectively, he won the USA Computer Olympiad and the Intel Science Talent Search. In 2003, he became the last person in MIT history to earn a triple major, with bachelor's degrees in Physics, Electrical Science and Engineering, and Mathematics, and graduated first in his class from MIT. In 2007, he completed his Ph.D. in Physics at Harvard, where his research was awarded the Hertz Foundation's Doctoral Thesis Prize. A popular TED speaker, his talks have been viewed more than 2 million times and translated into 27 languages.