William Daniel (Danny) Hillis, PhD

ADVISORY COUNCIL

Danny Hillis is an American inventor, entrepreneur, scientist, writer, and visionary who is particularly known for his work in computer science. He is best known as the founder of Thinking Machines, the pioneering parallel supercomputer manufacturer, and subsequently was a Fellow at Walt Disney Imagineering. More recently, Hillis co-founded Applied Minds, the technology R&D think-tank. 

Currently, he is co-founder of Applied Invention, an interdisciplinary group of engineers, scientists, and artists that develops technology solutions in partnership with leading companies and entrepreneurs. 

Hillis is also Visiting Professor at the MIT Media Lab, Judge Widney Professor of Engineering and Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC), and cofounder of The Long Now Foundation. He holds hundreds of U.S. patents, and is the designer of a 10,000-year mechanical clock. Hillis is a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.