Astro Teller | |
|---|---|
 Teller in 2025 | |
| Born | Eric Teller (1970-05-29)29 May 1970 (age 55)[1] Cambridge, England |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | BodyMedia,Google X |
| Spouse | |
| Awards | Hertz Fellowship |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions |
|
| Thesis | Algorithm evolution with internal reinforcement for signal understanding (1998) |
| Doctoral advisor | Manuela M. Veloso |
| Website | astroteller |
Eric "Astro"Teller (born 29 May 1970) is an American entrepreneur,computer scientist, and author, with expertise in the field of intelligent technology.[2][3]
Teller was born inCambridge, England, and raised inEvanston, Illinois. He is the son of Paul Teller, who was an instructor in the philosophy of science at theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago and Chantal DeSoto, a buyer and clothing designer forSears who later became a teacher ofgifted children.[4] His grandparents include French economist and mathematicianGérard Debreu and Hungarian-born American theoretical physicistEdward Teller.[5] He received the nickname "Astro" after high school friends compared his flat-top haircut toAstroTurf, and he reportedly had the image of cartoon dogAstro fromThe Jetsons painted on his car door in college by his first wife, Elizabeth Jennings.[6]
Teller holds a Bachelor of Science incomputer science fromStanford University, Master of Science insymbolic computation (symbolic andheuristic computation), also from Stanford, and a PhD inartificial intelligence fromCarnegie Mellon University,[2] where he received a Hertz fellowship.[a]
After working as a faculty member at Stanford University, Teller became a business executive.
Since 2010, he has directedGoogle X (which has become X, The Moonshot Factory)[7][8][9][10][11] laboratories.[12][13][14][15] Projects at Google X includeGoogle Glass,Google Self-Driving Car Project,Google Contact Lens andProject Loon. Google X spun its project called Flux out into a stand-alone business in 2012.[16] Teller gave aTED Talk at TED2016 on the importance of failure in Google X's approach to pioneering new projects.[17][18]
Teller was the co-founder and chairman ofBodyMedia,[2] makers of the BodyMedia FIT, Bodybugg, and Sensewear armbands (wearable devices that measure sleep, perspiration, motion, and calories burned).[19]
He is also co-founder, director, and former CEO of Cerebellum Capital.[20][21]
In May 2001, Teller was featured onNPR's radio programAll Things Considered, discussing how the good economy has shaped the attitudes of 30-year-olds towards their jobs.[22] He was the co-founder and co-host of the Solve for X annual event and internet community.[23]
He has lectured at theTEDMED Conference (2003 and 2004),South By Southwest (2013), and ideaCity (2004).[24][25][26] In 2008, he appeared as a political commentator on the national French television stationFrance 24.[27][28][29]
Teller's novel,Exegesis, was published in 1997.[30] It was translated into Dutch,[31] Japanese,[32] Danish,[33] German,[34] Italian[35] andGreeklish.
A second novel,Among These Savage Thoughts, was published in 2006. An experimental novel, it deals with the protagonist's journey to reinvent himself in the imaginary mountain society of Karabas.[36]
His third book,Sacred Cows, is a non-fiction work examining society's attitudes about marriage and divorce, co-written with his wife Danielle Teller. It was published by Diversion Books in 2014; in the same year, he gave a TEDxBoston talk on the book.[37][38]
Teller is married to Danielle Teller.[37]
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