Person/Alexander D. Wissner-Gross
Alexander D. Wissner-Gross
About
- American research scientist and entrepreneur working across applied technology and theoretical physics; fellow at Harvard’s Institute for Applied Computational Science.
- Education: S.B. degrees in physics, electrical engineering, and mathematics from MIT (2003); as of Wikipedia’s account, the last student to complete MIT’s triple major before the option ended. Ph.D. in physics from Harvard (2007), with graduate support including a Hertz Foundation fellowship and a Marshall Scholarship.
- Entrepreneurship: In 2007 founded CO2Stats (Y Combinator–backed), which estimated carbon dioxide emissions from website use; drew public attention in a dispute over the environmental cost of a Google search (Wissner-Gross disputed a widely repeated emissions figure attributed to him).
- Research: Work has included computational physics (e.g. with Efthimios Kaxiras on ice on sodium-coated diamond at body temperature, with possible implications for medical implants), discussion of physical latency limits in electronic trading, and—most widely cited—a 2013 Physical Review Letters paper with Cameron Freer on “causal entropic forces,” linking apparent goal-directed behavior to maximizing access to future states (entropy / “freedom of action”); popular coverage and substantial skeptical commentary followed.
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