Professor Neil Gershenfeld leads the Physics and Media Group at the MIT Media Lab, and directs the Things That Think research consortium. His unique laboratory investigates the relationship between the content of information and its physical representation, from developing molecular computers (which led to the first experimental demonstration of a quantum computation), to smart furniture (seen in the Museum of Modern Art and used in automobile safety systems), to virtuosic musical instruments (including a cello for Yo-Yo Ma and a stage for the Flying Karamazov Brothers).

Author of the best-selling books "When Things Start To Think," "The Nature of Mathematical Modeling," and "The Physics of Information Technology," Dr. Gershenfeld has a BA in Physics with High Honors from Swarthmore College, a Ph.D. from Cornell University, was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows, and a member of the research staff at Bell Labs.