SpeakerProf Neil Gershenfeld is the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Centre for Bits and Atoms. His unique laboratory investigates the relationship between the content of information and its physical representation, from molecular quantum computers to virtuosic musical instruments.
Technology from his lab has been seen and used in settings ranging from New York's Museum of Modern Art to rural Indian villages, the White House/Smithsonian Millennium celebration to automobile safety systems, the World Economic Forum to inner-city community centres, Las Vegas shows and Sami herds.
He is the author of numerous technical publications, patents and books including Fab, When Things Start To Think, The Nature of Mathematical Modeling and The Physics of Information Technology. Media including The New York Times, The Economist, CNN and the McNeil/Lehrer News Hour have all featured him and his work, and he has cited as one of the top 100 public intellectuals.
Gershenfeld has a BA in Physics with High Honours, an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Swarthmore College and a PhD from Cornell University. He was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows and a member of the research staff at Bell Labs.