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Nathan Paul Myhrvold | |
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 Nathan Myhrvold in 2016 | |
| Born | August 3, 1959 |
| Alma mater | UCLA (B.S., M.S.) Princeton University (M.S., Ph.D.) |
| Spouse | Rosemarie Havranek |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Intellectual Ventures, University of Cambridge, Microsoft Research |
| Website | www |
Nathan Paul Myhrvold (born August 3, 1959), formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, is co-founder of Intellectual Ventures and the principal author of Modernist Cuisine and its successor books.
Myhrvold was born on August 3, 1959, in Seattle, Washington, to Norwegian American parents. He was raised in Santa Monica, California, [1] where he attended Mirman School [2] and Santa Monica High School, graduating in 1974, [3] and began college at age 14. [4] Transferring from Santa Monica College, he studied mathematics (B.Sc.), and geophysics and space physics (Master's) at UCLA. [5] He was awarded a Hertz Foundation Fellowship for graduate study and studied at Princeton University, where he earned a master's degree in mathematical economics and completed a Ph.D. in applied mathematics after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Vistas in curved space-time quantum field theory" under the supervision of Malcolm Perry. [6] For one year, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge working under Stephen Hawking.
Myhrvold left Cambridge to co-found a computer startup in Oakland, California. The company, Dynamical Systems Research Inc. (DSR), sought to produce Mondrian, a clone of IBM's TopView multitasking environment for DOS. Myhrvold served as Dynamical Systems Research's president. [1] Microsoft purchased Dynamical Systems Research in 1986 for $1.5M in stock. [7] Myhrvold worked at Microsoft for 13 years in a variety of executive positions, culminating in his appointment as the company's first chief technology officer in 1996. [8] At Microsoft he founded Microsoft Research in 1991. [9]
After Microsoft, in 2000 Myhrvold co-founded Intellectual Ventures, [10] a patent portfolio developer and broker in the areas of technology and energy, which has acquired over 30,000 patents. [11] Intellectual Ventures takes part in the market for inventions and patents, buying patents from companies and inventors under the assumption the patents will be more valuable in the future. Intellectual Ventures also files patents through the work of a team of on-site inventors. Startup companies spun out of Intellectual Ventures, including TerraPower, Kymeta, Echodyne, Modern Electron, Lumotive, Evolv Technology, and Pivotal Commware, have developed commercial products from Intellectual Ventures' inventions. Through its Global Good unit, which Myhrvold founded in collaboration with Bill Gates, Intellectual Ventures has also invented and produced commercial products, such as improved vaccine coolers and milking cans, aimed at low-income markets in Africa and Asia. [12] However, in most cases, Intellectual Ventures' inventions are limited to the descriptions provided in their patents, which are bundled into portfolios for licensing.
Myhrvold has described his goal for Intellectual Ventures as helping to create a market for patent-backed securities. [13] The company's business practices have caused controversy, however, with some deprecating the firm as a patent troll, accusing the company of stifling innovation by buying patents and then forcing inventors to license their ideas by means of litigation. [14] [15] Myhrvold has publicly defended his firm's practices, arguing that they foster innovation by serving as a marketplace for intellectual property. He has noted that many of the largest companies in Silicon Valley, including Google, Apple, and Facebook, have also bought large patent portfolios and used litigation to protect them, but he has criticized them as focusing too much on creating "tools or toys for rich people." [16] Walt Mossberg interviewed Myhrvold about Intellectual Ventures' role as a "patent troll" during the 10th annual All Things Digital conference. [17]
According to The New York Times , Intellectual Ventures at one point controlled nearly 70,000 intellectual property assets (patents and patents pending) that it has used to generate approximately $3 billion in revenues, primarily in the form of license fees from large corporations. The company responds that it has returned more than $500 million to individual inventors and most of the remaining revenues to its investors. [18]
Myhrvold is vice chairman of TerraPower, a spin-out of Intellectual Ventures that is developing a new kind of nuclear reactor, known as a traveling-wave reactor, that is designed to be safer, cheaper, and cleaner than current nuclear power plants. In 2020, the company launched a joint venture with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to build and operate a prototype reactor of this kind that combines a molten-sodium reactor with a molten salt energy storage system. [19]
In addition to his business activities, Myhrvold is a working scientist who has published original, peer-reviewed research in the fields of paleobiology, [20] climate science, [21] and astronomy. [22] A prize-winning nature and wildlife photographer, he has also been involved with paleontological research on expeditions with the Museum of the Rockies. His work has appeared in scientific journals including Science , [23] Nature , [24] Paleobiology, [25] PLOS One , [26] and the Physical Review , [27] as well as in Fortune , Time , Scientific American , [28] [29] National Geographic Traveler , and Slate . He and Peter Rinearson helped Bill Gates write The Road Ahead , a book about the future that reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 1995 and 1996. Myhrvold has contributed $1 million to the nonprofit SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA, for the development of the Allen Telescope Array, which was envisioned to be the most powerful instrument for SETI. [30]
After the Science Museum in London successfully built the computing section of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine #2 in 1991, Myhrvold funded the construction of the output section, which performs both printing and stereotyping of calculated results. He also commissioned the construction of a second complete Difference Engine #2 for himself, which was on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, from May 10, 2008, to January 31, 2016, and currently resides in the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory. [31] [32] [33] [34] [35]
In research presented at scientific conferences and published in the astronomy journal Icarus , Myhrvold has been a vocal critic of procedures and results about asteroid diameters published by the NEOWISE team. [22] [36] [37] [38] [39] A preprint of his work on the subject [40] received wide press coverage [41] [42] [43] prompting NASA to release a public statement defending their published research and pointing out the lack of peer review and methodological errors in Myhrvold's preprint. [44]
While working as chief technology officer at Microsoft, Myhrvold took a leave to earn a culinary diploma from École de Cuisine La Varenne in France. [16] Myhrvold's early culinary training was as an observer and unpaid apprentice at Rover's, one of Seattle's leading restaurants, with Chef Thierry Rautureau. [45] Myhrvold is the principal author of a culinary text entitled Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, [46] released in March 2011, on the application of scientific research principles and new techniques and technology to cooking. [47] That book, which earned a James Beard Foundation Award for "cookbook of the year" in 2012, was followed by the books Modernist Cuisine at Home, [48] The Photography of Modernist Cuisine, [49] Modernist Bread , [50] and Modernist Pizza , [51] all self-published by Myhrvold and with him as lead author. Myhrvold was part of a team that won first place at the world barbecue championships in Memphis. [16] He has appeared as a guest judge on Top Chef .
In interviews with CNN, SuperFreakonomics author Stephen Dubner, and Scientific American, Myhrvold has discussed ways to reverse some of the effects of global warming/climate change by using geoengineering. [52] Myhrvold and other inventors working with Intellectual Ventures have proposed several approaches, including one that would use hoses, suspended from helium balloons 25 kilometers (16 mi) above the Earth at high latitudes, to emit sulfur dioxide, which is known to scatter light. [53] [54] [55]
Myhrvold was one of the acquaintances of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and attended dinner at his house. [56] According to an anonymous source, Myhrvold was one of the people who introduced Epstein to Bill Gates. [57] According to Vanity Fair writer Gabriel Sherman, Epstein allegedly visited Myhrvold's investment company Intellectual Ventures and brought young girls with him. According to Epstein's lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Myhrvold allegedly had sex with minors who, according to Dershowitz, then mistook Myhrvold for Dershowitz. Myhrvold denied being involved in Epstein's criminal activities or ever having known about them. His spokesperson stated that he had only socialized with Epstein, but had not had any business relations with him. [58]
Myhrvold received the James Beard Foundation Award for cookbook of the year in 2012 [59] and an honorary degree from The Culinary Institute of America in 2013 [60] for his book Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking . His book Modernist Bread received a James Beard Foundation book award in 2018. [61] In 2010, Myhrvold was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top 100 global thinkers. [62] He was selected as the keynote speaker for the UCLA College commencement ceremonies on Friday, June 12, 2015 [63] and received the Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences Luminary Award from the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences in 2021. [64] In 2013, Myhrvold was a judge for the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. Princeton University awarded him the James Madison Medal in 2005. [65] He received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1996. [66]
Myhrvold endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. [67]
Myhrvold is married to Rosemarie Havranek, whom he met while studying at Princeton. They have twin sons, Conor and Cameron A. Myhrvold. [68] [69] Cameron heads a lab researching CRISPR-based technologies for studying RNA as an assistant professor of molecular biology at Princeton University. [70]
Nathan Myhrvold has a younger brother, Cameron. [1] Myhrvold prefers to use a Dvorak keyboard. [71]
588 Achilles is a large Jupiter trojan asteroid of the Greek camp. Achilles was the first Jupiter trojan to be discovered, and was discovered by Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory in 1906. Wolf named the minor planet after the legendary hero Achilles from Greek mythology. The dark D-type asteroid measures approximately 133 kilometers in diameter which makes it one of the 10 largest Jupiter trojans. It has a rotation period of 7.3 hours and possibly a spherical shape.
1566 Icarus is a large near-Earth object of the Apollo group and the lowest numbered potentially hazardous asteroid. It has an extremely eccentric orbit (0.83) and measures approximately 1.4 km (0.87 mi) in diameter. In 1968, it became the first asteroid ever observed by radar. Its orbit brings it closer to the Sun than Mercury and further out than the orbit of Mars, which also makes it a Mercury-, Venus-, and Mars-crossing asteroid. This stony asteroid and relatively fast rotator with a period of 2.27 hours was discovered on 27 June 1949, by German astronomer Walter Baade at the Palomar Observatory in California. It was named after the mythological Icarus.
216 Kleopatra is a large M-type asteroid with a mean diameter of 120 kilometers and is noted for its elongate bone or dumbbell shape. It was discovered on 10 April 1880 by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at the Austrian Naval Pola Observatory, in what is now Pula, Croatia, and was named after Cleopatra, the famous Egyptian queen. It has two small minor-planet moons which were discovered in 2008 and later named Alexhelios and Cleoselene.
63 Ausonia is a stony Vestian asteroid from the inner region of the asteroid belt, approximately 100 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis on 10 February 1861, from the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, in Naples, Italy. The initial choice of name for the asteroid was "Italia", after Italy, but this was modified to Ausonia, an ancient classical name for the Italian region.
Intellectual Ventures is an American private equity company that centers on the development and licensing of intellectual property. Intellectual Ventures is one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011. Its business model focuses on buying patents and aggregating those patents into a large patent portfolio and licensing these patents to third parties. The company has been described as the country's largest and most notorious patent trolling company, the ultimate patent troll, and the most hated company in tech.
449 Hamburga is a carbonaceous asteroid from the background population of the intermediate asteroid belt, approximately 75 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomers Max Wolf and Friedrich Schwassmann at Heidelberg Observatory on 31 October 1899, and later named after the city of Hamburg in Germany.
Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technological innovation in collaboration with academic, government, and industry researchers. The Microsoft Research team has more than 1,000 computer scientists, physicists, engineers, and mathematicians, including Turing Award winners, Fields Medal winners, MacArthur Fellows, and Dijkstra Prize winners.
1143 Odysseus, provisional designation 1930 BH, is a large Jupiter trojan located in the Greek camp of Jupiter's orbit. It was discovered on 28 January 1930, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany, and later named after Odysseus, the legendary hero from Greek mythology. The dark D-type asteroid has a rotation period of 10.1 hours. With a diameter of approximately 125 kilometers, it is among the 10 largest Jovian trojans.
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer was a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009. WISE discovered thousands of minor planets and numerous star clusters. Its observations also supported the discovery of the first Y-type brown dwarf and Earth trojan asteroid. WISE performed an all-sky astronomical survey with images in 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 μm wavelength range bands, over ten months using a 40 cm (16 in) diameter infrared telescope in Earth orbit.
3782 Celle, provisional designation 1986 TE, is a bright Vestian asteroid and asynchronous binary system from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 3 October 1986, by Danish astronomer Poul Jensen at the Brorfelde Observatory in Denmark and named after the German city of Celle. The V-type asteroid has a rotation period of 3.84 hours. The discovery of its 2.3-kilometer minor-planet moon was announced in 2003.
1405 Sibelius, provisional designation 1936 RE, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 12 September 1936, by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland. The asteroid was named after composer Jean Sibelius.
23327 Luchernandez (provisional designation 2001 BE31) is a Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 20 January 2001, by astronomers of the LINEAR program at the Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site near Socorro, New Mexico, United States. The asteroid was named for ISEF awardee Lucero Hernandez.
A potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object – either an asteroid or a comet – with an orbit that can make close approaches to the Earth and which is large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact. They are conventionally defined as having a minimum orbit intersection distance with Earth of less than 0.05 astronomical units and an absolute magnitude of 22 or brighter, the latter of which roughly corresponds to a size larger than 140 meters. More than 99% of the known potentially hazardous objects are no impact threat over the next 100 years. As of September 2022, just 17 of the known potentially hazardous objects listed on the Sentry Risk Table could not be excluded as potential threats over the next hundred years. Over hundreds if not thousands of years though, the orbits of some "potentially hazardous" asteroids can evolve to live up to their namesake.
Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking is a 2011 cookbook by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet. The book is an encyclopedia and a guide to the science of contemporary cooking.
Winston Laverne Shelton was an American inventor, electrical engineer and entrepreneur who was awarded 76 US patents as an individual or as part of a team, as well as many corresponding patents. Shelton's patents have had an impact relating to home washing machines and the preparation of food in both the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry and fine dining. Technologies Shelton developed while an engineer at General Electric are still in use after more than fifty years. His patent for the modern "Washing Machine", licensed in 1965 to General Electric has been referenced in over 40 subsequent patents.
Gastrophysics is an emerging interdisciplinary science that employs principles from physics and chemistry to attain a fundamental understanding of the worlds of gastronomy and cooking. Gastrophysical topics of interest include investigations of the raw materials of food, the effects of food preparation, and quantitative aspects of the physical basis for food quality, flavour, appreciation and absorption in the human body.
(164121) 2003 YT1, provisional designation 2003 YT1, is a bright asteroid and synchronous binary system on a highly eccentric orbit, classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group, approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 18 December 2003, by astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey at the Catalina Station near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. The V-type asteroid has a short rotation period of 2.3 hours. Its 210-meter sized minor-planet moon was discovered at Arecibo Observatory in May 2004.
The Ten Commandments of Nouvelle Cuisine aim to set general guidelines for cooking nouvelle cuisine. These commandments were published by the French food journalist Henri Gault. The commandments are as follows:
Modernist Bread is a 2017 cookbook by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya. The book is focused on bread, its history and baking techniques, and a guide to the science behind baking.
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