Alex Mullen (memory athlete)

Last updated

Alex Mullen
Alex Mullen, 2016 WMC, Dec 18.jpg
Mullen at the 2016 World Memory Championship in Singapore
Personal information
Full nameAlexander Joseph Mullen
Nationality American
Born (1992-03-03) 3 March 1992 (age 32)
Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Alma mater Johns Hopkins University (BS)
University of Mississippi (MD)
Years active2014–present
SpouseCathy Chen (m. 2015)
Website www.mullenmemory.com
Sport
Sport Memory
RankNo. 1 (June 2016-2019)
Achievements and titles
World finals1st place (2015, 2016, 2017)
National finals1st place (2016)
Highest world rankingNo. 1 (June 2016)
Personal bests
  • Speed Cards (analog): 15.61 sec (2017)
  • Speed Cards (digital): 52 in 12.33s (2020)
  • 80 Digits: 17.65 sec (2016)
  • 5 min Numbers: 568 digits (2017)
  • 15 min Numbers: 1100 digits (2016)
  • 30 min Numbers: 1933 digits (2016)
  • Historic Dates: 133 dates (2017)
  • 60 min Numbers: 3238 digits (2017)

Alex Mullen (born 3 March 1992) is an American memory competitor, three-time world memory champion, and physician. [1] [2] The first American to win the world title, he won for three consecutive years the 2015, 2016, and 2017 World Memory Championships and held the IAM world No. 1 ranking from 2016-2019. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] He was also the 2022 and 2023 Memory League World Champion. [8] [9] Along with his wife, he runs Mullen Memory [10] - a nonprofit which "provides free resources exploring memory palaces as learning tools." [11]

Contents

Personal life

Mullen was born in Princeton, New Jersey. [3] He grew up in Oxford, Mississippi and attended Oxford High School, where he competed on the varsity swimming and tennis teams. [12] In his senior year, Mullen was a National Merit Finalist and fourth award winner at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for a team project with his future wife, Cathy Chen. [13] [14] He attended Johns Hopkins University and studied biomedical engineering and applied mathematics. [15] He received his M.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 2019. [12] Both he and his wife received the Jim and Donna Barksdale Scholarship to cover the full cost of attendance of medical school. [3] In 2020, he began a diagnostic radiology residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. [16]

Notable competitions

2015

2016

2017

2021

2022

2023

Records

Mullen has held world records in 12 different memory sport disciplines, with the majority-minority of them involving the memorization of numbers or playing cards. [31] [32] [33] [34] He is the first person to memorize the order of a deck of playing cards in under 20 seconds at an official competition. [35] He is also the first to memorize more than 3,000 decimal digits in one hour. [36]

Media appearances

Mullen was a two-time contestant on the final season of the Chinese television program The Brain in 2017, defeating his opponent Wang Feng, the 2010 and 2011 World Memory Champion, by accurately recalling the airline routes, departure and arrival locations, and times of 50 flights. [37] He was also a contestant on Superhuman, the American version of The Brain, winning his episode by memorizing a deck of cards flashed onscreen at two cards per second. [38] Mullen has been featured in The New Yorker, [39] BBC, [40] CNN, [41] The Washington Post, [42] Lifehacker, [43] Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, [44] Today, [45] Mic, [2] Guinness World Records, [46] Men's Health, [47] The Guardian , [48] and The New York Times , [49] among others.

See also

Related Research Articles

The title mnemonist refers to an individual with the ability to remember and recall unusually long lists of data, such as unfamiliar names, lists of numbers, entries in books, etc. Some mnemonists also memorize texts such as long poems, speeches, or even entire books of fiction or non-fiction. The term is derived from the term mnemonic, which refers to a strategy to support remembering, but not all mnemonists report using mnemonics. Mnemonists may have superior innate ability to recall or remember, in addition to relying on techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Pridmore</span>

Ben Pridmore is a former world memory champion, memory sport competitor and accountant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Memory Championships</span> Annual memory competition

The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of memory sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time. The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of 1992. It was originated by Tony Buzan and co founded by Tony Buzan and Ray Keene. It continues to be organized by the World Memory Sports Council (WMSC), which was jointly founded by Tony Buzan and Ray Keene. In 2016, due to a dispute between some players and the WMSC, the International Association of Memory (IAM) was launched. From 2017 onward, both organizations have hosted their own world championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stef Clement</span> Dutch road bicycle racer (born 1982)

Stef Clement is a Dutch former professional cyclist, who competed between 2003 and 2018 for the Van Hemert Groep CT, Rabobank Continental Team, Bouygues Télécom, IAM Cycling and LottoNL–Jumbo squads. He specialized in the time trial discipline, winning the Dutch National Time Trial Championships on four occasions. He also won the bronze medal in the 2007 World Championships time trial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Kluge</span> German cyclist (born 1986)

Roger Kluge is a German professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team Rad-Net Oßwald. Kluge left NetApp–Endura at the end of the 2013 season, and joined IAM Cycling for the 2014 season. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, he won the silver medal in the men's points race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan van Koningsveld</span>

Jan van Koningsveld is a mental calculator.

Johannes Mallow is a German memory sportsman. He is a one-time pre-split winner of the World Memory Championships in 2012. He has also won another title post-split in the IAM event in 2018, a disputed one where he would have ranked outside top 5 in the event both World events’ scores were to be compiled into a single ranking. He studied successfully Communication Technology at the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg and finalized his PhD thesis in 2016 at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He also works as a mind coach and scientific author.

Grand Master of Memory (GMM) is a title previously awarded by the International Association of Memory to people who are able to successfully negotiate the following three memory feats:

Memory sport, sometimes referred to as competitive memory or the mind sport of memory, refers to competitions in which participants attempt to memorize then recall different forms of information, under certain guidelines. The sport has been formally developed since 1991 and features national and international championships. The primary worldwide organizational bodies are the IAM and WMSC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vegard Stake Laengen</span> Norwegian racing cyclist

Vegard Stake Laengen is a Norwegian professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam UAE Team Emirates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Warbasse</span> American road cyclist

Lawrence Warbasse is an American professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale. Best known for winning the 2017 United States National Road Race Championships, Warbasse has also competed for UCI WorldTeams BMC Racing Team and IAM Cycling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelson Dellis</span> Memory athlete

Nelson Charles Dellis is an American memory athlete and consultant. He is a six-time USA Memory Champion, holding the record for most wins of the national memory champion title. He is also one of the co-founders of Memory League. Nelson also runs Climb 4 Memory - a nonprofit which "aims to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimer's disease research through mountain climbs around the world."

The USA Memory Championship is an annual competition that took place every spring in New York City until 2016, and is currently held in Orlando, Florida, after an online qualifier. It was founded by Tony Dottino, President of Dottino Consulting Group, Inc., and Marshall Tarley in 1997. Designed to test the limits of the human brain, the USA Memory Championship is an organized competition in which Memory Athletes (MAs) attempt to memorize as much information as possible in events such as Names and Faces, Cards, Random Numbers, Images, and guest information at a fictional "Tea Party". Since 2018, there is also often an event called Long-Term Memory in which the MAs are given reams of data a month in advance about a wide variety of subjects such as the Periodic table of the elements, Space Shuttle missions, NFL Hall-of-Famers, etc. Participation is open to US citizens who are at least 12 years of age. The competition currently consists of 9 total events, 5 of which are online qualifying events, while the last four events are held at a live event to determine the champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peta Mullens</span> Australian cyclist (born 1988)

Peta Mullens is an Australian racing cyclist, who currently rides for Liv Brazilian Butterfly Racing. She is a former Australian road, MTB and cyclo-cross champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Mullen</span> Irish cyclist (born 1994)

Ryan William Mullen is an Irish professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe.

Memory League is a memory competition platform originally founded and created by Nelson Dellis and Simon Orton under the name Extreme Memory Tournament (XMT).

Yänjaa Wintersoul, sometimes known as simply Yanjaa, is a Mongolian–Swedish triple world record-breaking memory champion and polyglot. She is one of only 22 international grandmasters of memory. She first rose to prominence in memory sports in 2014 by winning the team gold medal as well as first place in names and faces at the World Memory Championships 2014 in Haikou, China during her first year of memory training.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonas von Essen</span> Memory sports player

Baron Jonas von Essen is a Swedish, two-time world memory champion. He was a memory sports player from 2012 to 2015. In April 2019 he co-founded memoryOS, an ed-tech startup developing memory improvement software.

The International Association of Memory (IAM) is an international organization that connects the various national memory sport federations and acts as a governing body of international memory competition. The IAM was founded on 5 July 2016 and has its headquarters in Munich, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Muzii</span> Italian memory competitor

Andrea Muzii is an Italian memory competitor, former speedcuber, 3 times European Memory Champion, who became IAM World Memory Champion in 2019 and IAM World No.1 ranked athlete. He was the first memory athlete to achieve the IAM title of Grandmaster of Memory-Gold.

References

  1. 1 2 "Special Titles | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 7 November 2016.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. 1 2 3 Jordyn Taylor, "The Person With the World's Best Memory Is a Millennial From the US", in Mic (media company) , March 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Callie Bryant, "World Memory Champion, Oxford Native Alex Mullen Teaches Memorization", in HottyToddy.com, 2 February 2016.
  4. ↑ Pettus, Gary (18 December 2015). "UMMC student wins world memory challenge". The Clarion-Ledger . Jackson, Mississippi.
  5. ↑ "World Memory Championships 2016 (Combined) | World Memory Championships". www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 "World Ranking | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  7. ↑ "World Memory Championships 2017". Archived from the original on 5 December 2017.
  8. ↑ "2022 Memory League World Championship | Memory League". memoryleague.com. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  9. ↑ "2023 Memory League World Championship | Memory League". www.memoryleague.com. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  10. ↑ "Home". Mullen Memory. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  11. ↑ "Home | Mullen Memory". www.mullenmemory.com. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  12. 1 2 Gary Pettus, Memory Serves Alex Mullen, New World Mental Athlete Champion", in University of Mississippi News, 28 January 2016.
  13. ↑ "Oxford High School National Merit Finalists", 2010.
  14. ↑ "Intel ISEF 2010 Grand Awards Ceremony" [ permanent dead link ], 14 May 2010.
  15. ↑ "2014 JHU Engineering Convocation Awards Ceremony" Archived 1 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine , 5 May 2014.
  16. ↑ Rosemary Hutzler Raun, "The Mnemonist", in Johns Hopkins Magazine, 9 October 2020.
  17. ↑ "World Memory Championships 2015 | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  18. ↑ "World Memory Championships | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.com. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  19. ↑ "Grandmasters | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.com. Archived from the original on 11 December 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  20. ↑ "2016 Final Top 9 MA Rankings | USA Memory Championship". www.usamemorychampionship.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2016. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  21. ↑ List of USA Memory Champions
  22. ↑ "IAM US Open 2016 | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  23. ↑ "International Memoriad Las Vegas-2016 Results | Memoriad". www.memoriad.com. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  24. ↑ "IAM European Open 2016 | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  25. ↑ "World Memory Championships 2016 (Combined) | World Memory Championships". www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  26. ↑ "International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  27. ↑ "World Ranking | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  28. ↑ "2021 Pan American Open | Memory League". www.memoryleague.com. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  29. ↑ "2022 Memory League World Championship | Memory League". www.memoryleague.com. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  30. ↑ "2023 Memory League World Championship | Memory League". www.memoryleague.com. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  31. ↑ "World Records | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  32. ↑ "5 Minute Numbers Record | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  33. ↑ "Simon Reinhard is the 2016 Extreme Memory Champion! | Extreme Memory Tournament". www.extremememorytournament.com. Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  34. ↑ "World Memory Championships Disciplines | World Memory Championships". www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  35. ↑ "5-minute "Speed" Cards Record | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  36. ↑ "60 Minute/Hour Numbers Record | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  37. ↑ 最强大脑 第四季 2017 (2 April 2017), 《最强大脑 第四季 》20170331 妍佳VS余奕沛：挑战项目基因密码 - 2017.03.31 , retrieved 25 June 2017{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  38. ↑ Andy Belt, "Magnificent memory means money for Oxford native Alex Mullen", in OxfordEagle.com, 29 June 2017.
  39. ↑ Ian Frisch, "Lessons from America's First Memory World Champion", in NewYorker.com, 18 May 2016.
  40. ↑ Helen Thomson, "The man who thinks like Sherlock Holmes", in BBC.com, 12 April 2016.
  41. ↑ Michael Nedelman, "Hack your brain to remember almost anything", in CNN.com, 9 March 2017.
  42. ↑ Devin Powell, "This man memorized a shuffled deck of cards in 18.65 seconds. Here’s how.", in WashingtonPost.com, 16 May 2016.
  43. ↑ Melanie Pinola, "Learn How to Memorize Information With This Video From a World Memory Champion", in Lifehacker.com, 29 March 2016.
  44. ↑ Sanjay Gupta, "How to memorize a deck of cards under 17 seconds", in CNN.com, 22 June 2017.
  45. ↑ A. Pawlowski, "How to remember faces, names and more: Tips from the world memory champion", in Today.com, 16 June 2016.
  46. ↑ Asha Leo, "LIVE: Meet World Memory Champion 2015 - Alex Mullen", in Facebook.com, 17 October 2016.
  47. ↑ Tyler Daswick, "How to Build a Better Memory", in MensHealth.com, 7 August 2017.
  48. ↑ Daniel Lavelle, "How to avoid losing your memory in the digital age", in TheGuardian.com, 13 November 2018.
  49. ↑ Bryan Clark, "Train Your Brain Like a Memory Champion", in NYTimes.com, 9 January 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.