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Neil Gershenfeld

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Neil Gershenfeld
Gershenfeld in 2010
Born
Neil Adam Gershenfeld

(1959-12-01) December 1, 1959 (age 66)
Ardmore, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma mater
Known forDirector of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms
Scientific career
FieldsComputer sciences
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisRepresentation of chaos (1990)
Doctoral advisorWatt W. Webb[citation needed]
Notable studentsEdward Boyden
Aram Harrow
Websiteng.cba.mit.edu

Neil Adam Gershenfeld (born December 1, 1959) is an American physicist. He is a professor in the MIT Program in Media Arts and Sciences[1] and the director of the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms.[2] He works mainly on interdisciplinary topics in physics and computer science, such as quantum computing, nanotechnology, and personal fabrication. He has been called the "intellectual father of the maker movement".[3]

Early life and education

Gershenfeld was born on December 1, 1959 in Ardmore, Pennsylvania to a Jewish family.[4][5] His father, Walter Gershenfeld, was a labor arbitrator and mediator and emeritus professor of management at Temple University,[6] and his mother Gladys Gershenfeld who was also an arbitrator.[7][8]

He attended Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Later he attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 1981 with a B.A. degree in physics with high honors.[9] In 1990, he earned a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell University; his thesis was titled Representation of chaos.[10]

He received an honorary doctorate from Swarthmore College in 2006.[11] In 2012 he received an honorary doctorate from Strathclyde University.[12]

Career

Gershenfeld as keynote speaker at APMM 2010

In 1998, Gershenfeld started a class at MIT called "How to make (almost) anything". Gershenfeld wanted to introduce expensive, industrial-size machines to the technical students. However, this class attracted a lot of students from various backgrounds: artists, architects, designers, students without any technical background. In his interview to CNN, Gershenfeld said that "the students... were answering a question I didn't ask, which is: What is this stuff good for? And the answer is: Not to make what you can buy in stores, but to make what you can't buy in stores. It's to personalise fabrication".[13] Gershenfeld believes that this is the beginning of a new revolution: digital revolution in fabrication that will allow people to fabricate things, machines on demand.

Gershenfeld has presented his course on "How to make (almost) anything" at the Association of Professional Model Makers (APMM) 2010 Conference.[14] In 2023, his course won the Irwin Sizer Award for the Most Significant Improvement to MIT education.[15]

This class later has led Gershenfeld to create Fab lab.[16] Gershenfeld feels very passionate about this project, as he believes that teaching kids how to use technology and create it themselves will empower the future generations to become more independent and create technology that each individual community needs, not a technology that is currently available on the market. Fab labs exist in over 150 countries.[17] In his interview with Discover magazine on the question what personal fabrication might be useful for, Gershenfeld said, "There is a surprising need for emergent technologies in many of the least developed places on the planet. While our needs might be fairly well met, there are billions of people on the planet whose needs are not. Their problems don't need incremental tweaks in current technology, but a revolution".[18]

Gershenfeld chairs Fab Foundation,[19] leads the Fab Academy,[20] which grew into the "Academany" platform for distributed hands-on education.[21]

In addition to the "How to make (almost) anything" course, Gershenfeld has taught "How To Make Something That Makes (almost) Anything", "The Physics of Information Technology", "The Nature of Mathematical Modeling".[22]

He was involved in starting the Interspecies Internet where he is a Founding Trustee.[23][24]

Gershenfeld has spoken at TED conferences,[23] and presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos.[25]

Quantum computing pioneer

In 1998, Gershenfield and associates built the first quantum computer (2-qubit) that could be loaded with data and output a solution. Although impractical, it demonstrated the principles of quantum computation, it was the first significant faster-than-classical quantum computation.[26][27]

Ultralight material

In 2013, Gershenfeld and fellow researchers at MIT introduced reversibly assembled cellular composite materials.[28][29]

Other research

Gershenfeld with James Randi at TAM 5

His work has been published in Science, Nature, IEEE, ACM, Cell, and many other journals, as well as in The American Physical Society journal.

Gershenfeld published an early paper on what became known as the Internet of Things.[30] His paper "Microfluidic bubble logic" introduced digital logic in microfluidics.[31] His paper on "Physical one-way functions" introduced the concept of physical one-way functions.[32]

Gershenfeld released the Great Invention Kit in 2008, a construction set that users can manipulate to create various objects.[33]

Honors and recognition

Gershenfeld is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2007).[34] He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2020).[35] He is an elected Member of the National Academy of Engineering (2023).[36]

Scientific American named Gershenfeld one of their "Scientific American 50" for 2004 and has also named him Communications Research Leader of the Year.[37] Gershenfeld has been featured in The New York Times,[38] in The Economist,[39] and on NPR.[40] He was named as one of the 40 modern-day Leonardos by the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago.[41] Prospect named him as one of the top 100 public intellectuals.[42]

Jeffrey Epstein encounters

In July 2019, it was revealed that the director of the MIT Media Lab, Joi Ito, had accepted several large donations from Jeffrey Epstein; Ito later resigned in the ensuing scandal.[43] According to a 2020 investigation by Goodwin Procter, published at the request of the MIT Corporation, Gershenfeld and other faculty had encountered Epstein three times during MIT Lab tours between June and October 2013. During one tour, Esptein expressed an interest in Gershenfeld's research work including consciousness, and signaling and deception by animals.[44] After the initial meeting at MIT, Gershenfeld accepted a dinner invitation to Epstein's home in New York City.[44] Confirming this, emails from the Epstein files showed that in 2013, Epstein requested that Gershenfeld invite artist Jeff Koons to Epstein's home for dinner.[45][46]

Bibliography

  • Gershenfeld, Neil (1999). The Nature of Mathematical Modeling. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-57095-4.; 1st edition. 1998; hbk, 356 pages{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)[47]
  • Neil A. Gershenfeld (2000). When Things Start to Think. Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-8050-5880-2; 2000 pbk edition of 1999 hbk edition{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link); Gershenfeld, Neil (1999). 1st edition. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-8050-5874-1. (hbk)[48][49]
  • Gershenfeld, Neil (2011). The Physics of Information Technology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-21022-5. 1st edition. 2000.[50]
  • Gershenfeld, Neil (2011). Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop. ReadHowYouWant Limited. ISBN 978-1-4596-1057-6. Gershenfeld, Neil A. (2005). 1st edition. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02745-3.[51]
  • Gershenfeld, Neil; Gershenfeld, Alan; Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Joel (2017). Designing reality: How to survive and thrive in the third digital revolution. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465093489.[52] ebook ISBN 9780465093489

References

  1. ^ "Massachusetts Institute of Technology". MIT.
  2. ^ "Neil Gershenfeld biography". ng.cba.mit.edu. Retrieved April 26, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  3. ^ "Making (Almost) Anything". Spectrum. Fall 2019. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  4. ^ National Academy of Arbitrators Annual Meeting (2011). Arbitration 2010 (PDF). p. xxii. ISBN 978-1-61746-000-5.
  5. ^ Funeral, Goldsteins (May 5, 2022). "Walter Gershenfeld Obituary". Goldsteins Funeral.
  6. ^ Downey, Sally A. (February 27, 2010). "Walter J. Gershenfeld, 84, management professor". Inquirer.com.
  7. ^ Saulnier, Beth (October 16, 2021). "The Replicator Revolution – Cornell Alumni Magazine". Cornell Alumni Magazine – Your alma mater, your stories, your magazine.
  8. ^ "Guide to the Gershenfeld, Walter and Gladys Arbitration Papers, 1932-2010". Rare and Manuscript Collections.
  9. ^ "CV: Prof. Neil Gershenfeld" (PDF). ng.cba.mit.edu. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
  10. ^ Gershenfeld, Neil (1990). Representation of chaos (Ph.D.). Cornell University. OCLC 64017404.
  11. ^ Gershenfeld, Neil (May 2006). "Swarthmore Commencement Address -- Neil Gershenfeld '81". Swarthmore College. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  12. ^ "Oscar Pistorius to be awarded honorary degree from Strathclyde". Strathclyde Telegraph. October 11, 2012. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  13. ^ Zakaria, Fareed (July 17, 2013). "On GPS: Future of digital fabrication". CNN website. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  14. ^ "APMM 2010 Conference – Keynote Professor Neil Gershenfeld". Prototype Today. 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  15. ^ "Irwin Sizer Award: 2023". MIT Awards Convocation. 2023. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  16. ^ Tretkoff, Ernie (April 6, 2006). "Gershenfeld Hopes to Spearhead a Fab-ulous Revolution". American Physical Society. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
  17. ^ "LabsMap". FabLabs. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  18. ^ Svitil, Kathy A. (January 1, 2003). "Physicist Neil Gershenfeld—Time to Make the Computer Vanish". Discover. 26 (1). Kalmbach Publishing. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  19. ^ "Fab Foundation Board". Fab Foundation. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  20. ^ "Meet Our People: Program Director". Fab Academy. Retrieved March 30, 2026. Neil leads the academy
  21. ^ "About". Academany. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  22. ^ Gershenfeld, Neil. "List of Neil Gershenfeld classes". ng.cba.mit.edu. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  23. ^ a b "The interspecies internet? An idea in progress". Ted Talks. February 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  24. ^ "Team". Interspecies Internet. Retrieved March 30, 2026. Founding Trustee
  25. ^ "Progressive Companies Make Leap from Sustainable to "Circular" Manufacturing". World Economic Forum. January 25, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  26. ^ Chuang, Isaac L.; Gershenfeld, Neil; Kubinec, Mark (1998). "Experimental Implementation of Fast Quantum Searching". Physical Review Letters. 80 (15). The American Physical Society: 3408–3411. Bibcode:1998PhRvL..80.3408C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.3408.
  27. ^ Holton, William Coffeen. "quantum computer". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  28. ^ Cheung, K. C.; Gershenfeld, N. (2013). "Reversibly Assembled Cellular Composite Materials". Science. 341 (6151): 1219–1221. Bibcode:2013Sci...341.1219C. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.672.1351. doi:10.1126/science.1240889. PMID 23950496. S2CID 206550070.
  29. ^ Cheung, K. C.; Gershenfeld, N. (July 17, 2013). "Assembling big structures out of small ultralight pieces". Science. 341 (6151): 1219–1221. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.672.1351. doi:10.1126/science.1240889. PMID 23950496. S2CID 206550070. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
  30. ^ Gershenfeld, Neil; Krikorian, Raffi; Cohen, Danny (2004). "The internet of things". Scientific American. 291 (4): 76–81.
  31. ^ Gershenfeld, Neil; Prakash, Manu (February 9, 2007). "Microfluidic Bubble Logic". Science. 315 (5813): 832–5. Bibcode:2007Sci...315..832P. doi:10.1126/science.1136907. hdl:1721.1/46593. PMID 17289994. S2CID 5882836. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  32. ^ Gershenfeld, Neil; Pappu, Ravikanth; Recht, Ben; Taylor, Jason (September 20, 2002). "Physical one-way functions". Science. 297 (5589): 2026–30. Bibcode:2002Sci...297.2026P. doi:10.1126/science.1074376. hdl:1721.1/45499. PMID 12242435. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  33. ^ Greenberg, Andy (August 21, 2008). "Invention kits let you build (almost) anything". NBC News. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2013.
  34. ^ "Awards and honors". MIT News. December 12, 2007. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  35. ^ "Six MIT faculty elected 2020 AAAS Fellows". MIT News. November 24, 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  36. ^ "Members: Dr. Neil Gershenfeld". National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  37. ^ "The Scientific American 50". Scientific American. December 2004. p. 47.
  38. ^ Giridharadas, Anand (May 13, 2011). "The Kitchen-Table Industrialists". The New York Times. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  39. ^ the printed edition (June 9, 2005). "How to make (almost) anything". The Economist. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  40. ^ "The Making of a Personal Lab". NPR. November 11, 2005. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  41. ^ "Modern-Day Leonardos". Museum of Science and Industry Chicago. Archived from the original on July 27, 2014. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
  42. ^ "Intellectuals—the results". Prospect. July 26, 2008. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  43. ^ Tracy, Marc; Hsu, Tiffany (September 7, 2019). "Director of M.I.T.'s Media Lab Resigns After Taking Money From Jeffrey Epstein". The New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  44. ^ a b "Report concerning Jeffrey Epstein's interactions with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology" (PDF). January 10, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  45. ^ "Jeff Koons Attended Dinner Party at Jeffrey Epstein's House". Hyperallergic. February 2, 2026.
  46. ^ Greenberger, Alex (February 3, 2026). "Jeff Koons Says He 'Did Not Have a Relationship' with Jeffrey Epstein After Appearing in Files". ARTnews.com.
  47. ^ McKibben, Mark (January 18, 2001). "Review of The Nature of Mathematical Modeling by Neil Gershenfeld". MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America.
  48. ^ "Review of When Things Start to Think by Neil Gershenfeld". Publishers Weekly. January 4, 1999.
  49. ^ "Review of When Things Start to Think by Neil Gershenfeld". Kirkus Reviews. November 15, 1998.
  50. ^ Yee, Danny (2001). "Review of The Physics of Information Technology by Neil Gershenfeld". science.slashdot.org. (See Slashdot.)
  51. ^ "Review of Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop—From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication". Publishers Weekly. April 2005.
  52. ^ Shapira, Philip (2017). "Making the future (book review of Designing reality: How to survive and thrive in the third digital revolution)". Science. 358 (6366): 1007.1–1007. Bibcode:2017Sci...358.1007S. doi:10.1126/science.aap9616. S2CID 52807056.
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