Alex Mullen (memory athlete) explained

Alex Mullen
Fullname:Alexander Joseph Mullen
Nationality:American
Birth Date:1992 3, df=yes
Birth Place:Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Years Active:2014present
Spouse:Cathy Chen (m. 2015)
Sport:Memory
Rank:No. 1 (June 2016-2019)
Worlds:1st place (2015, 2016, 2017)
Nationals:1st place (2016)
Highestranking:No. 1 (June 2016)

Alex Mullen (born 3 March 1992) is an American memory competitor, three-time world memory champion, and physician.[1] [2] The first American to win the world title, he won for three consecutive years the 2015, 2016, and 2017 World Memory Championships and held the IAM world No. 1 ranking from 2016-2019.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] He was also the 2022 and 2023 Memory League World Champion.[7] [8] Along with his wife, he runs Mullen Memory[9] - a nonprofit which "provides free resources exploring memory palaces as learning tools."[10]

Personal life

Mullen was born in Princeton, New Jersey.[11] He grew up in Oxford, Mississippi and attended Oxford High School, where he competed on the varsity swimming and tennis teams.[12] In his senior year, Mullen was a National Merit Finalist and fourth award winner at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for a team project with his future wife, Cathy Chen.[13] [14] He attended Johns Hopkins University and studied biomedical engineering and applied mathematics.[15] He received his M.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 2019.[12] Both he and his wife received the Jim and Donna Barksdale Scholarship to cover the full cost of attendance of medical school.[11] In 2020, he began a diagnostic radiology residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.[16]

Notable competitions

2015

2016

2017

2021

2022

2023

Records

Mullen has held world records in 12 different memory sport disciplines, most involving the memorization of numbers or playing cards.[31] [32] [33] [34] He is the first person to memorize the order of a deck of playing cards in under 20 seconds at an official competition.[35] He is also the first to memorize more than 3,000 decimal digits in one hour.[36]

Media appearances

Mullen was a two-time contestant on the final season of the Chinese television program The Brain in 2017, defeating his opponent Wang Feng, the 2010 and 2011 World Memory Champion, by accurately recalling the airline routes, departure and arrival locations, and times of 50 flights. He was also a contestant on Superhuman, the American version of The Brain, winning his episode by memorizing a deck of cards flashed onscreen at two cards per second.[37] Mullen has been featured in The New Yorker,[38] BBC,[39] CNN,[40] The Washington Post,[41] Lifehacker,[42] Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta,[43] Today,[44] Mic,[2] Guinness World Records,[45] Men's Health,[46] The Guardian,[47] and The New York Times,[48] among others.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Special Titles International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2016-11-07.
  2. Jordyn Taylor, "The Person With the World's Best Memory Is a Millennial From the US", in Mic (media company), March 2016.
  3. News: UMMC student wins world memory challenge. Pettus. Gary . 18 December 2015. The Clarion-Ledger. Jackson, Mississippi.
  4. Web site: World Memory Championships 2016 (Combined) World Memory Championships. www.worldmemorychampionships.com. 2017-01-02.
  5. Web site: World Ranking International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2016-07-05.
  6. Web site: World Memory Championships 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171205065537/http://iam-stats.org/competition.php?id=WMC2017. 2017-12-05. dead.
  7. Web site: 2022 Memory League World Championship Memory League. memoryleague.com. 2022-03-08.
  8. Web site: 2023 Memory League World Championship Memory League. www.memoryleague.com. 2023-02-15.
  9. Web site: Home. Mullen Memory. en-US. 2017-12-06.
  10. Web site: Home Mullen Memory. www.mullenmemory.com. 2016-12-29.
  11. Callie Bryant, "World Memory Champion, Oxford Native Alex Mullen Teaches Memorization", in HottyToddy.com, 2 February 2016.
  12. Gary Pettus, Memory Serves Alex Mullen, New World Mental Athlete Champion", in University of Mississippi News, 28 January 2016.
  13. http://www.oxfordsd.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&ModuleInstanceID=1661&ViewID=7b97f7ed-8e5e-4120-848f-a8b4987d588f&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=1431&PageID=294/ "Oxford High School National Merit Finalists"
  14. https://member.societyforscience.org/document.doc?id=205/ "Intel ISEF 2010 Grand Awards Ceremony"
  15. http://engineering.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/JHU-WSE-convocation-14.pdf "2014 JHU Engineering Convocation Awards Ceremony"
  16. Rosemary Hutzler Raun, "The Mnemonist", in Johns Hopkins Magazine, 9 October 2020.
  17. Web site: World Memory Championships 2015 International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2016-11-07.
  18. Web site: World Memory Championships World Memory Statistics. www.world-memory-statistics.com. 2016-12-21.
  19. Web site: Grandmasters World Memory Statistics. www.world-memory-statistics.com. 2016-11-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20161211182112/http://www.world-memory-statistics.com/grandmasters.php. 11 December 2016. dead.
  20. Web site: 2016 Final Top 9 MA Rankings USA Memory Championship. www.usamemorychampionship.com. 2016-05-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20160525193310/http://www.usamemorychampionship.com/2016-final-top-9-ma-rankings/. 25 May 2016. dead.
  21. http://mt.artofmemory.com/wiki/List_of_USA_Memory_Champions List of USA Memory Champions
  22. Web site: IAM US Open 2016 International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2016-11-07.
  23. Web site: International Memoriad Las Vegas-2016 Results Memoriad. www.memoriad.com. 2016-11-29.
  24. Web site: IAM European Open 2016 International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2016-12-06.
  25. Web site: World Memory Championships 2016 (Combined) World Memory Championships. www.worldmemorychampionships.com. 2017-01-02.
  26. Web site: International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2017-12-07.
  27. Web site: World Ranking International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2017-12-07.
  28. Web site: 2021 Pan American Open Memory League. www.memoryleague.com. 2022-03-09.
  29. Web site: 2022 Memory League World Championship Memory League. www.memoryleague.com. 2022-03-08.
  30. Web site: 2023 Memory League World Championship Memory League. www.memoryleague.com. 2023-02-15.
  31. Web site: World Records International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2016-11-07.
  32. Web site: 5 Minute Numbers Record International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2016-11-07.
  33. Web site: Simon Reinhard is the 2016 Extreme Memory Champion! Extreme Memory Tournament. https://web.archive.org/web/20160702133851/http://www.extremememorytournament.com/news/2016/6/27/simon-reinhard-is-the-2016-extreme-memory-champion. dead. 2016-07-02. www.extremememorytournament.com. 2016-11-07.
  34. Web site: World Memory Championships Disciplines World Memory Championships. www.worldmemorychampionships.com. 2017-12-07.
  35. Web site: 5-minute "Speed" Cards Record International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2016-11-07.
  36. Web site: 60 Minute/Hour Numbers Record International Association of Memory Statistics. www.iam-stats.org. 2016-11-26.
  37. Andy Belt, "Magnificent memory means money for Oxford native Alex Mullen", in OxfordEagle.com, 29 June 2017.
  38. Ian Frisch, "Lessons from America's First Memory World Champion", in NewYorker.com, 18 May 2016.
  39. Helen Thomson, "The man who thinks like Sherlock Holmes", in BBC.com, 12 April 2016.
  40. Michael Nedelman, "Hack your brain to remember almost anything", in CNN.com, 9 March 2017.
  41. Devin Powell, "This man memorized a shuffled deck of cards in 18.65 seconds. Here’s how.", in WashingtonPost.com, 16 May 2016.
  42. Melanie Pinola, "Learn How to Memorize Information With This Video From a World Memory Champion", in Lifehacker.com, 29 March 2016.
  43. Sanjay Gupta, "How to memorize a deck of cards under 17 seconds", in CNN.com, 22 June 2017.
  44. A. Pawlowski, "How to remember faces, names and more: Tips from the world memory champion", in Today.com, 16 June 2016.
  45. Asha Leo, "LIVE: Meet World Memory Champion 2015 - Alex Mullen", in Facebook.com, 17 October 2016.
  46. Tyler Daswick, "How to Build a Better Memory", in MensHealth.com, 7 August 2017.
  47. Daniel Lavelle, "How to avoid losing your memory in the digital age", in TheGuardian.com, 13 November 2018.
  48. Bryan Clark, "Train Your Brain Like a Memory Champion", in NYTimes.com, 9 January 2019.

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