Dr. Peter Diamandis is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and launching large incentive prizes to drive radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. Best known for the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE for private spaceflight, the Foundation is now launching prizes in Exploration, Life Sciences, Energy, and Education. Diamandis is also the co-Founder & Executive Chairman of the Singularity University.

Diamandis recently co-Authored Abundance – The Future Is Better Than You Think. Diamandis has founded or co-founded many of the leading entrepreneurial companies in this sector including Zero Gravity Corporation, the Rocket Racing League and Space Adventures. He also counsels the world’s top enterprises on how to utilize exponential technologies and incentivized innovation to dramatically accelerate their business objectives. Dr. Diamandis attended MIT where he received his degrees in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering, as well as Harvard Medical School where he received his M.D.

* videoconference

Dr. Chander is a physician and neuroscientist who trained at Harvard, UCSD, UCSF, and the Salk Institute. She has been on the Anesthesiology Faculty at Stanford University since 2008 and Neuromedicine Faculty at Singularity University since 2010. Her postdoctoral training in optogenetic technology was conducted in the laboratories of Karl Deisseroth and Luis de Lecea at Stanford, where she used light-activated ion channels inserted in DNA to study sleep and consciousness switches in brains. In the operating room, she applies EEG technology to understand what human brains look like when they lose and regain consciousness, and has recently developed a personalized medicine initiative aimed at understanding genetic variability in responses to anesthetic drugs.

Her goal is to understand neural mechanisms of consciousness and eventually utilize this knowledge to develop improved algorithms to create better brain monitors. She is currently working on applications of neural wearable devices to crossover consumer and medical markets. Dr. Chander shares a parallel passion for space exploration. During her lifetime, it is her deepest desire to see a well-developed architecture to sustain human and robotic exploration of our solar system and beyond. She has performed remote simulations of trauma rescues, anesthesia and surgery in Mars analogue settings with physicians in the US, France, and the Concordia base in Antarctica. Currently, she is involved with a consortium that is studying the effect of microgravity and radiation on the nervous system, cardiovascular system, cognition and sleep. Dr. Chander anticipates using many of the brain read-out technologies applied to her clinical practice to understanding nervous system development and plasticity within the space microgravity environment to better enable short and long-duration space missions.

Ramez Naam is a computer scientist, futurist, and award-winning author. Ramez spent 13 years at Microsoft, where he led teams developing early versions of Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, and the Bing search engine. His career has focused on bringing advanced collaboration, communication, and information retrieval capabilities to roughly one billion people around the world, and took him to the role of Partner and Director of Program Management within Microsoft, with deep experience leading teams working on cutting edge technologies such as machine learning, search, massive scale services, and artificial intelligence. Between stints at Microsoft, Ramez founded and ran Apex NanoTechnologies, the world’s first company devoted entirely to software tools to accelerate molecular design.

He holds 19 patents related to search engines, information retrieval, web browsing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Ramez is also the H.G. Wells Award-winning author of four books: The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet, (non-fiction) looks at the environmental and natural resource challenges of climate change, energy, water, and food, and charts a course to meet those challenges by investing in the scientific and technological innovation needed to overcome them, and by changing our policies to encourage both conservation and critical innovations. He’s a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy at Aurora Illinois. In his leisure, Ramez has climbed mountains, descended into icy crevasses, chased sharks through their native domain, backpacked through remote corners of China, and ridden his bicycle down hundreds of miles of the Vietnam coast. He lives in Seattle, where he writes and speaks full time.

Sarah Bergbreiter joined the University of Maryland, College Park in 2008 as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, with a joint appointment in the Institute for Systems Research. Sarah brings new skills and interests to our programs, and can help to bridge research in systems and control with research in microsystems and fabrication.

She received her B.S.E. degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University in 1999. After a short introduction to the challenges of sensor networks at a small startup company, she received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and 2007 with a focus on microrobotics. She received the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2008, the NSF CAREER Award in 2011, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) Award in 2013 for her research on engineering robotic systems down to sub-millimeter size scales. She also received the Best Conference Paper Award at IEEE ICRA 2010 for her work incorporating new materials into microrobotics.

David Roberts is regarded as one of the world’s top experts on disruptive innovation and exponentially advancing technology. His passion is to help transform the lives of a billion suffering people in the world through disruptive innovation. David served as Vice President of Singularity University and two-time Director (and alum) of the Graduate Studies Program. He is an award winning CEO and serial entrepreneur, and has started ventures backed with over $100 million of investment from Kleiner Perkins, Vinod Khosla, Cisco, Oracle, Accenture, In-Q-Tel, and others. He is the recipient of numerous awards and medals and has led the development of some of the most complex, state-of-the art systems ever built, to include satellites, drones, and fusion centers. He returned to public service after working as an Investment Banker in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Goldman Sachs Headquarters. He received his B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering from M.I.T. was a Distinguished Graduate, and majored in Artificial Intelligence and Bio-Computer Engineering. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

David is Chairman at HaloDrop, a revolutionary global drone services company, Chairman at 1QBit the world’s first software company for quantum computers, and is a formal adviser to Made-In-Space, responsible for manufacturing the first object in Space with a 3D printer on the Space Station. Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley’s Business schools have all written and taught case studies on David’s leadership, management, and decision making. He has been featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal, and in USA Today, Fortune Magazine, The New York Times, Business Week, CNN, and dozens of others. His startups have received many awards to include Internet World’s Net Rising Stars, Red Herring’s Catch, top 50 Private Companies in the World, Red Herring Top 100 Private Companies in the World, USA Today’s Tech Reviews Best Picks, Internet Outlook’s Investors Choice Award, Enterprise Outlook Investors Choice, Best of the Web from PC World, and Apple Computer’s Premier Systems Integrator Award. His fascination with technology began In fourth grade after building a hovering electric drone, to carry his younger sister to the bus stop, powered by what was formerly his mother’s vacuum cleaner, and fortunately limited by the length of an electric power cord.

David is an entrepreneur, visionary, author and thought leader of the global technology landscape. He is the Founder and Managing Partner of Network Society Ventures, a seed stage global investment firm focused on innovative ventures at the intersection of exponential technologies and decentralized networks. He is also Founder and a Trustee of Network Society Research (NSR), a London-based global think tank. It is creating a vision and analytical tools to allow individuals, enterprises and the society at large to deal positively with the unstoppable transformation to a world based on decentralized exponential technologies that are disrupting the traditional centralized and hierarchical functions of governments and corporations.
David was the CEO of Dotsub, based in New York City, for four years, driving their rapid growth and new generations of product while serving clients. Dotsub uses both crowdsourced and professional translation to deliver its services. He is the Founder of Dotwords, an international language service provider based in Milan, Italy. The company supports businesses and organizations operating in the competitive multilingual markets opened by globalization, as well as local companies targeting international expansion.

David is also on the Faculty of and Advisor to the Singularity University and he is an Adjunct Professor at LUISS Business School in Rome. He is also a mentor for the Thiel Fellowship, a Scientific Advisory Board Member for the Lifeboat Foundation, a Founder of the Open Government Data working group, and an Advisor to the Institute of Ethics and Emergent Technologies and numerous startups in Europe and North America.
David is a founder of Axelera, an Italian nonprofit whose aim is to inspire future leaders, entrepreneurs and technologists by spreading knowledge about exponential technologies and the importance of addressing widespread global challenges. He was the Chairman of the Board, and is an Advisor to Humanity+, an organization dedicated to promoting understanding, interest, and participation in fields of scientific advancement and emerging innovation that benefit the human condition.
David is an author of two books. Something New is about the role of artificial intelligence in society. Network Society – The Coming Phase Change In the World Around You is an innovative e-book publishing project on the phase transformation towards exponential technologies and decentralization.

Anita is the CEO and Co-Founder of Iris.ai; one of the 10 most innovative artificial intelligence startups in 2017 according to Fast Company. Iris.ai is an AI Science assistant, able to read, digest and connect scientific knowledge, that will grow up to be the world’s first AI Researcher within a decade.

Set out to democratize access to science, Iris.ai can reduce R&D departments’ time to map out existing research by 95% and remove current requirements of having deep domain expertise involved in the process, thus allowing more people to solve more difficult problems.

Anita is a highly sought after public speaker, one of Inspiring Fifty Nordic’s most inspiring women in tech, twice TEDx speaker and 500 startups, SU Global Grand Challenges Awards and TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield alumni. Anita is also the first Norwegian to attend Singularity University’s Global Solution Program in 2015 – and she put on the first Global Impact Challenge Norway in 2016.

Anita has never had what she refers to as “a real job” and Iris.ai is her fourth own startup. The past 10 years of her career have spanned over 9 industries including developing an e-learning tool in Silicon Valley, performing theatre for babies, reducing energy consumption in the process industry through heat exchanger network optimization, getting 30 (mainly middle-age, male) engineers to dance to ABBA in front of their co-workers, facilitating solar light business creation in Kenya, being in the centre of several startups crashing and burning, organizing entrepreneurial conferences and trying to disrupt the recruitment industry. She also dropped by 6 universities on the way. And built a race car.

Bohdanna is the Director of International Summits at Singularity University. She oversees the execution of Global Licensing SU’s International Summits, impacting and educating over 40,000 people on exponential technology and how to use that technology to solve the world’s largest challenges. Bohdanna works with partners from all over the globe, including South Africa, India, Western and Eastern Europe, Canada, Central America, and South America. Her talent lies in her ability to build strong relationships, respect regional traditions, and customs, all the while empowering her partners to produce impactful summits for thousands of participants in their country.

Stakeholders who attend the SU International Summits include all sections of government officials, including Presidents and Prime Ministers, C suite management of Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs, NGO’s, and students.
Prior to Singularity University, Bohdanna worked for Peter Thiel and the Thiel Foundation as their Event Curator, managing dozens of projects including CNBC Transforming Tomorrow, a documentary focused on the Thiel Fellowship and the Wired.com series ‘Teen Technorati’ showcasing Fellows from The Thiel Fellowship. Bohdanna was also one of the architects of The Thiel Foundation Summit; a bi-annual assembly of young entrepreneurs and visionaries from around the world.
And, while working at SU, Bohdanna devotes time to her painting career, exhibiting her work in the US and internationally.
Bohdanna holds an M.F.A from San Francisco State University, a Post-Baccalaureate certificate from California College of the Arts, and a B.S. from Indiana University – Bloomington.

John Hagel III has nearly 35 years of experience as a management consultant, author, speaker and entrepreneur, and has helped companies improve their performance by effectively applying new generations of technology to reshape business strategies. John currently serves as co-chairman of the Silicon Valley-based Deloitte Center for the Edge, which conducts original research into emerging business opportunities that should be on the CEO agenda. In recent years, the Center for the Edge has established branches in Melbourne, Australia and in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Before joining Deloitte, John was an independent consultant and author.

Prior to that, he held significant positions at leading consulting firms and companies. From 1984 to 2000, he was a principal at McKinsey & Co., where he was a leader of the Strategy Practice. In addition, he founded and led McKinsey Electronic Commerce Practice from 1993 to 2000. John has also served as senior vice president of strategic planning at Atari, Inc., and earlier in his career, worked at Boston Consulting Group. He is the founder of two Silicon Valley startups.
John is the author of a series of best-selling business books, including his most recent book, The Power of Pull and, earlier, The Only Sustainable Edge, Out of the Box, Net Worth and Net Gain. He has won two awards from Harvard Business Review for best articles in that publication and has been recognized as an industry thought leader by a variety of publications and professional service firms.

Carlo van de Weijer (1966) has a Master degree in Mechanical Engineer from the University of Technology in Eindhoven and a PhD degree with honors from Technical University in Graz. He started his career in 1990 at TNO Automotive, moved to SiemensVDO in 2001 to head the Eindhoven automotive navigation development lab, since 2007 part of TomTom.

Currently, Dr. Van de Weijer is director of the Strategic Area Smart Mobility at Eindhoven University of Technology, alongside his work for TomTom. He is chairman and member of the supervisory board of several high-tech companies and start-ups, and advises governments and industries around the world on the future of technology and mobility.

Aaron is a writer and speaker and one of the earliest hires at Singularity University. Aaron is focused on the intersection of emerging technologies and accelerating change and is fascinated by the impact that both will have on business, society, and culture.

As a writer, his articles have appeared online in Vice’s Motherboard, Wired UK and Forbes. As a speaker, Aaron has lectured for audiences and organizations including the CIA, The Department of Defense, The Coca-Cola Company, AAAS, Under Armour, Headquarters Air Force and more.
Prior to joining SU, Aaron worked at WHITECOAT Strategies, a life science consulting firm. There, Aaron managed patient advocacy campaigns, programs to expand awareness for HIV/AIDS cure research, and assisted the announcement for the first ever ethics guidelines for the bioengineering of trees. Originally from Lower Merion, PA, Aaron has a humanities background with a degree in Communications and a minor in Philosophy from the University of Maryland.

Amin is the CEO of T Labs. He was formerly the director of strategy and Vice President of Strategic Relations at Singularity University. He brings a unique set of technological, entrepreneurial and policy perspectives to the dialogue of innovation on campus.

Before Singularity, Amin founded for-profit and social impact organizations in a range of domains including: artificial intelligence, peer to peer lending, bitcoin, human rights, international development, carbon offsetting, and solar energy. Google Search ranks him as the world’s best guitar player – a title he readily rejects. In addition to his work at Singularity, he is building the World’s first hedge fund for the poor, as well as Reversopedia – a reverse encyclopedia composed of things we know we don’t know. Amin has a degree in artificial intelligence from the University of British Columbia, an MBA from Stanford, and an MPA in economic policy from Harvard. He attended Harvard and Stanford concurrently and graduated an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Jaya Baloo is the CISO of KPN in the Netherlands. The CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) is the director of information security. Basically, it is a role played at the executive level and its main function is to align the security of information with business objectives. In this way, it is guaranteed at all times that the company's information is adequately protected.

Jaya works with an amazing information security team of highly driven specialists. Working in the information security arena for the past 18 years, she has worked mostly for global telecommunications companies such as Verizon and France Telecom. Jaya is also a frequent speaker at security conferences on subjects around lawful interception, mass surveillance, and cryptography. In 2017, she was recognized as one of the top 100 CISO's globally.

Lisa Kay Solomon is a well-known thought leader in design innovation with a focus on helping leaders learn how to be more creative, flexible and resilient in the face of constant change. Lisa is the Chair of Transformational Practices and Leadership at Singularity University a global community of smart, passionate, action-oriented leaders who want to use exponential technologies to positively impact the world. She co-authored the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations that Accelerate Change, and more recently, Design a Better Business: New Tools, Skills, and Mindset for Strategy and Innovation.

Lisa is a frequent keynote speaker on innovation, design thinking, and leadership at global conferences and business schools. A passionate educator, Lisa has taught at the revolutionary Design MBA program at California College of the Arts and has developed and led popular classes for Stanford d. School such as Networking By Design and Design With the Brain in Mind. She is also the Executive Producer of the annual Inspired4Schools conference, a design leadership program for educators, and is on the leadership committee for The Nueva School’s Innovative Learning Conference, a biennial gathering for trends related to the future of education.

Jeffrey Rogers is a facilitator, speaker, and program designer who creates interactive educational experiences driven by storytelling, engagement, and play. He’s an academically trained social scientist (UC Berkeley, University of Texas-Austin) with a knack for future-thinking and a deep belief in the transformative potential of exponential technologies as tools to de-risk experimentation, accelerate learning, and create change.

Jeffrey speaks frequently across the US and abroad on exponential thinking and leads workshops on creative problem solving and storytelling. He’s connected dots, ideas, and people as a moderator recently for the SU Executive Program and Exponential Tech and Strategy programs for Oracle, Google, Roche, NBC, Aegon and other global brands.

Prior to joining SU, Jeffrey spent a decade building learning and development solutions across sectors and designing and delivering award-winning educational and training programs. He currently serves as Singularity University’s Director of Faculty & Facilitator Development, working closely with our faculty to discover their unique strengths as communicators and teachers and to co-create rave-worthy, learner-centered experiences at SU and on the web worldwide.

Alex Gladstein is Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. He has also served as Vice President of Strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum since its inception in 2009. In his work Alex has connected hundreds of dissidents and civil society groups with business leaders, technologists, journalists, philanthropists, policymakers, and artists to promote free and open societies.

Alex’s writing and views on human rights and technology have appeared in media outlets across the world including The Atlantic, BBC, CNN, Fast Company, The Guardian, Monocle, NowThis, NPR, Quartz, TIME, WIRED, The New Republic, and The Wall Street Journal. He has spoken at universities ranging from MIT to Stanford, presented at the European Parliament, and participated in Singularity University events from Berlin to Johannesburg. He has also spoken at a range of blockchain and cryptocurrency events about why bitcoin matters for freedom.