| Conrad Wolfram | |
|---|---|
Conrad Wolfram in transmediale 10 talking about Wolfram Alpha. |
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| Born | June 10, 1970 |
| Residence | United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Cambridge University |
| Occupation | Strategic and International Director, Wolfram Research |
Conrad Wolfram (born 1970) is a British technologist and businessman known for his work in information technology and its application.
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Conrad Wolfram founded Wolfram Research Europe Ltd.[1] in 1991 and remains its managing director.[2] In 1996 he additionally became Strategic and International Director[3] of Wolfram Research, Inc., making him also responsible for Wolfram Research Asia Ltd, and communications such as the wolfram.com website.
Wolfram Research was founded by his brother[4] Stephen Wolfram, the maker of Mathematica software and the Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine.[5]
Conrad Wolfram has led the effort to move the use of Mathematica from pure computation system to development and deployment engine,[6][7] instigating technology such as the Mathematica Player family and web Mathematica and by pushing greater automation within the system.[8] He has also lead the focus on interactive publishing technology with the stated aim of "making new applications as everyday as new documents"[9] claiming that "If a picture is worth a thousand words, an interactive document is worth a thousand pictures."[10] These technologies converged to form the Computable Document Format[11]
Wolfram was on the founding committee of the IMS conferences.
Wolfram has been a prominent proponent of the reform of math education by greater use of information technology.[12][13][14] and is the founder of computerbasedmath.org. The UK's Channel 4 news quotes him saying "There are a few cases where it is important to do calculations by hand, but these are small fractions of cases. The rest of the time you should assume that students should use a computer just like everyone does in the real world.".[15] In an interview with the Guardian he described the replacement of hand calculation by computer use as "democratising expertise".[16]
In 2009 he spoke about education reform at the TEDx Conference at the EU Parliament.[17][18] and again at TED Global 2010 where he argued that "Maths should be more practical and more conceptual, but less mechanical,"[19] and that "Calculating is the machinery of math — a means to an end."
He serves on the Computer science committee Advisory Board at Kings College London.[20]
Born in Oxford, England, in 1970, Wolfram was educated at Dragon School, Eton College, Pembroke College, Cambridge University, UK[21] from which he holds an MA in Natural Sciences and Maths.