Nelson Dellis

Nelson Dellis

Personal information
Full name	Nelson Charles Dellis
Nationality	American, British
Born	(1984-02-04) February 4, 1984 Wimbledon, UK
Residence	Miami, Florida
Alma mater	University of Miami (B.S. in Physics, M.S. in Computer Science)
Occupation	Mnemonist, Mountaineer, Public Speaker, Consultant
Years active	2009-present
Height	6 ft 6 in
Weight	235 lb
Spouse(s)	Leah Dellis (m. 2016)
Other interests	Crossfit
Website	www.nelsondellis.com, www.climb4memory.org
Sport
Sport	Memory
Rank	No. 50 (Feb. 2017), Grand Master of Memory
Achievements and titles
World finals	7th place (2012), 12th place (2013), 8th place (2014), 23rd place (2015)
National finals	W (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015), F (2010, 2013)
Highest world ranking	No. 21 (Oct. 2011)
Personal best(s)	15 min Names & Faces: 201 names (2015, NR) 15 min Random Words: 255 words (2014, NR) Speed Cards: 40.65 sec (2012) Speed Numbers: 339 digits (2013)

Nelson Charles Dellis (born February 4, 1984) is a memory athlete, mnemonist, public speaker, and consultant. He is a four-time USA Memory Champion. He is one of the co-founders of Memory League (formerly, Extreme Memory Tournament) , a new type of competitive memory platform that allows memory enthusiasts to challenge each other online.^[1]

Personal life

Dellis was born in Wimbledon, UK, to a Belgian mother and a French father, and grew up in England, France, and the United States.^[2][3] He attended high school at Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami, Florida.^[2] After graduation, he went on to attend the University of Miami, where he graduated with a major in physics and a minor in mathematics. He then earned a master's degree in computer science, also from the University of Miami, and wrote his thesis on Automated reasoning.^[2][3] He is a mountain climber who has made three attempts to climb Mount Everest, and has scaled Alaska's Mount McKinley along with other mountains around the world.^[2][3][4]

Dellis lives in Miami, Florida with his wife.

Mental athletics

Dellis was originally inspired to improve his memory after seeing the decline of his grandmother's memory due to Alzheimer's disease, and entered his first memory competition in 2009.^[5] He has since placed in a number of competitions as well as broken numerous memory records (see below).

Dellis was featured in the 2012 documentary Ben Franklin Blowing Bubbles at a Sword: The Journey of a Mental Athlete.^[3] He also appeared in the Science Channel program Memory Games in July 2013, which covered the 2013 US Memory Championships.^[6] He has also been interviewed regarding memory training on Today,^[7] The Dr. Oz Show,^[8] and Nightline.^[9]

Notable competitions

2010

• USA Memory Championship (Mar. 6, New York City, USA): 3rd place overall.^[10] Dellis broke the US record for memorizing the most numbers in 5 minutes: 178 digits.^[11]

• Friendly (Cambridge) Memory Championship (May 2, Cambridge, UK): 2nd place overall.^[12] Dellis broke US records in all 10 disciplines at this event, raising the international standard for American competitors in memory sports.^[13]

2011

• USA Memory Championship (Mar. 7, New York City, USA): 1st place overall.^[14] Dellis broke the US record for memorizing the most numbers in 5 minutes: 248 digits,^[15] and the fastest to memorize a deck of cards: 66 seconds.^[16]

• UK Open Memory Championship (Aug. 25-26, London, UK): 2nd place overall.^[17]
• German Open Memory Championship (Sept. 16-17, Heilbronn, Germany): 6th place overall.^[18]

2012

• USA Memory Championship (Mar. 24, New York City, USA): 1st place overall.^[19] Dellis broke the US record for memorizing the most numbers in 5 minutes: 303 digits,^[20] the fastest to memorize a deck of cards: 66 seconds,^[21] and the most names memorized in 15 minutes: 162 names.^[22] Dellis was the first and only (as of Feb. 17, 2017) mental athlete to win all four events in the morning part of the competition, getting a perfect 400 total points across four events ^[23]

• World Memory Championships (Dec. 14-16, London, UK): 7th place overall.^[24] Dellis broke the US international record, at this event, for memorizing a deck of cards in the fastest time: 40.65 seconds .^[25]

He also received the title of international Grand Master of Memory, the highest title bestowed by the World Memory Sports Council, at this event.^[26][27]

2013

• USA Memory Championship (Mar. 24, New York City, USA): 2nd place overall.^[28]

• World Memory Championships (Nov. 30-Dec. 2, London, UK): 12th place overall.^[29] Dellis broke the US international record, at this event, for memorizing the most digits in 5 minutes: 339 digits.^[30]

2014

• USA Memory Championship (Mar. 29, NYC, New York): 1st place overall.^[31] Dellis broke the US record for memorizing the most numbers in 5 minutes: 310 digits,^[32] and the most names memorized in 15 minutes: 193 names.^[33]

• World Memory Championships (Dec. 11-14, Haikou, China): 9th place overall.^[34] At this event, Dellis broke the US international record for most words memorized in 15 minutes: 255 words,^[35] and the US international record for most international names memorized in 15 minutes: 125 names.^[36]

2015

• USA Memory Championship (Mar. 29, NYC, New York): 1st place overall.^[37] Dellis broke the US record for memorizing the most names memorized in 15 minutes: 201 names.^[38] After the championship win, Dellis became only the second America memory athlete to win four US titles.^[39]

• UK Open Memory Championship (Aug. 27-28, London, UK): 6th place overall.^[40]
• World Memory Championships (Dec. 16-18, Chengdu, China): 23rd place overall.^[41]

2016

• Memoriad (Nov. 8-10, Las Vegas, NV): gold: Names & Faces, bronze: Speed Reading.^[42] He also set an Olympic Memory Record for memorizing the most names in 15 minutes: 198 names.^[43]
• UK Memory League Championship (Nov. 19-20, London, UK): 2nd place overall/finals runner-up.^[44]

Records

As of Feb. 17, 2017, Dellis held 4 American records.^[45][46] He was the first American to memorize a deck of cards at an international competition in under 60 seconds.^[47] He was also the second American to achieve the Grand Master of Memory title.^[48]

Dellis holds a number of memory records, including the US national record for memorizing the most names in 15 minutes, 201 names.^[49] He also is the former record holder for memorizing a deck of shuffled cards in 63 seconds^[3] as well as for memorizing the most digits in 5 minutes, with 339 digits memorized.^[50] He is also ranked 15th in the world for memorizing a deck of cards, with a time of 40.65 seconds, one of the fastest times for an American in an international competition.^[51] He currently ranks 50th in the world as a memory athlete.^[52]

Career

Before becoming involved in memory athletics, Dellis worked as a software developer.^[50] He also worked as a Veterinary Technician and as a Vedic Mathematics (mental math) teacher at Math Monkey of Pinecrest in Miami. In Chicago, he worked at a local yarn shop, experimenting with large scale knitting projects. He now works as a public speaker and memory consultant, giving talks on his climbs as well as holding seminars about memory techniques.^[3][50] Dellis is also the co-founder of Memory League (formerly, Extreme Memory Tournament) , a new type of competitive memory platform that allows memory enthusiasts to challenge each other online.^[1] He has also written a children's picture book called "I Forgot Something (but I can't remember what it was)" designed to teach children the basics of memory techniques.^[53]

Charity work

In 2010, Dellis founded Climb for Memory, a charity organization that raises money for Alzheimer's research through sponsored mountain climbs undertaken by Dellis.^[3] Fusion-io sponsored an ascent of Everest in 2013, following up on a 2011 attempt in which Dellis had to turn back 280 feet from the summit due to equipment failure.^[4] He also attempted Everest in 2016 but turned around at the South Col because of developing HAPE.

See also

• World Memory Championships
• USA Memory Championship
• Grand Master of Memory
• Memory sport
• Mnemonist

References

External links

• Nelson Dellis
• Climb For Memory
• Memory League