GSP-09 Student, Singularity University

Although I grew up in Canada, I love travelling and have lived in 7 countries and visited almost 50. My professional life has included a mix of public sector and private sector work, including at the Canadian Parliament, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, the United Nations, and the strategy consultancy Bain & Company. I currently live in the San Francisco Bay area where I am pursuing my PhD.

Education:

My post-secondary education began with undergraduate degrees in physics, economics and international development from Queen’s University in Canada, which was then followed by a Master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics. I am now mid-way though a PhD in Business at the Haas School of Business at the University of California (Berkeley).

Home Country/Town: Toronto, Canada

SU Track: Finance and Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial activities:

Working on a oncology diagnostics start-up out of UC Davis

Expertise/Interest:

My interest is in cutting-edge technologies that will profoundly impact the way we live our lives. The two technologies that I’m most interested in are brain-machine interfaces, that allow us to control our machines using only our thoughts, and machine learning, where our computer programs grow increasingly useful and adaptable. I am also studying the process of innovation itself.

Email: neil.thompson at singularityu.org