| Alexander D. Wissner-Gross | |
| Fields: | Physics |
| Workplaces: | CO2Stats |
| Alma Mater: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University |
Alexander D. Wissner-Gross is an American research scientist and entrepreneur.[1] He is a fellow at the Institute for Applied Computational Science at Harvard University.[2]
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he researched nanotechnology, Wissner-Gross triple-majored in physics, electrical engineering and mathematics. He was awarded the Marshall Scholarship, and was the last student to triple-major at MIT before the option was discontinued.[3] Wissner-Gross also has a Ph.D in physics from Harvard University.
In 2007, Wissner-Gross founded the technology company CO2Stats, which measures the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by using a website.[4] CO2Stats is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and received funding from the seed venture capital firm Y Combinator.[5] The company attracted controversy when Wissner-Gross was reported to have claimed that a single Google search emitted seven grams of, which Google disputed.[6] Wissner-Gross denied making the claim.
Wissner-Gross co-authored a paper with mathematician Cameron Freer describing a "biophysical model for explaining sophisticated intelligent behavior in human and nonhuman animals", published in the journal Physical Review Letters,[7] which he expected would be useful for artificial intelligence. Researcher Gary Marcus wrote an article in The New Yorker criticizing the paper, saying they were "essentially promising a television set that walks your dog".