Vivek Wadhwa

Technology & Innovation Author, Academic & Futurist

Vivek Wadhwa’s research is focused on the critical advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, computing, synthetic biology, 3D printing, medicine, and nanomaterials, and how these advances are creating disruptive changes for companies, industries, governments and the culture at large. Vivek rejoined Harvard as a Distinguished Fellow, Harvard Law School, Labor, and Worklife Program, where he is leading a three-year research project on the effects of technology on future employment and work. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering, where he teaches on CMU’s Silicon Valley campus. Vivek was also a Director of Research at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, Vice President of Innovation and Research at Singularity University, and Fellow at Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Harvard Law School, and Emory University.

Vivek’s syndicated column for The Washington Post covers all things technology and innovation. His newest bestselling book is Your Happiness Was Hacked: Why Tech Is Winning the Battle to Control Your Brain — and How to Fight Back. Previous books include The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future and The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent, which was named by The Economist as a Book of the Year of 2012, and Innovating Women: The Changing Face of Technology.

He started his career as a software developer and gained a deep understanding of the challenges in building computer systems. As Vice President of Information Services at investment banking powerhouse CS First Boston (CSFB), he led the development of technology for creating computer-aided software-writing systems, a project so successful that CSFB decided to spin off that business unit into its own company, Seer Technologies. As its Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Wadhwa helped grow the startup into a $118 million publicly traded company. Vivek also founded Relativity Technologies. As a result of his vision, Forbes.com named him a Leader of Tomorrow, and Fortune declared Relativity one of the 25 coolest companies in the world. In 2012, the U.S. Government recognized Vivek as an “Outstanding American by Choice” for his “commitment to this country and to the common civic values that unite us as Americans.” He was also named one of the world’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy magazine in that year; in 2013, he was on TIME’s list of “Tech 40”; and in 2015, he was second on a list of “10 men worth emulating” in the Financial Times.