Neil Gershenfeld

He works mainly on interdisciplinary topics in physics and computer science, such as quantum computing, nanotechnology, and personal fabrication. He has been called the "intellectual father of the maker movement". Gershenfeld was born on December 1, 1959 in Ardmore, Pennsylvania to a Jewish family. His father, Walter Gershenfeld, was a labor arbitrator and mediator and emeritus professor of management at Temple University, and his mother Gladys Gershenfeld who was also an arbitrator. He attended Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Later he attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 1981 with a B.A. degree in physics with high honors. In 1990, he earned a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell University; his thesis was titled Representation of chaos. He received an honorary doctorate from Swarthmore College in 2006.