Sebastian Thrun

Educator/Teacher, Inventor, Scientist

Sebastian Thrun, PhD, is a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford, where he directs the Stanford AI Lab. Thrun's team won the DARPA Grand Challenge, a US-Government sponsored autonomous robot race that took place in 2005. He is also a distinguished engineer at Google, where he co-invented Google Streetview and where he leads the Google Self-Driving Car project. In recognition of his contributions, Thrun has been elected into the US National Academy of Engineering (under the age of 40) and the German Academy of Sciences. He is an elected fellow of the AAAI, ECCAI, and WTN. Popular Science included Thrun in their "Brilliant Ten," Forbes Magazine in their "E-Gang" members, Scientific American in their list of 50 world technology and policy leaders, and Fortune in their list of Smartest People in Tech. Wired Magazine awarded Thrun's robot Stanley the top spot in the most influential robots of all times; the robot is now part of a permanent exhibition in the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Thrun loves to work in things that can impact the world big times, and that challenge him as a scientist, mentor, and leader.

Innovation, the future of humanity, learning new things, education, robotics, human computer interfaces.

The biggest killer of young people are traffic accidents. We can fix this. Why does no one talk about this crime against our youth?