William Daniel Hillis

William Daniel Hillis (born September 25, 1956) is an American inventor, entrepreneur, and computer scientist, who pioneered parallel computers and their use in artificial intelligence. He founded Thinking Machines Corporation, a parallel supercomputer manufacturer, and subsequently was Vice President of Research and Disney Fellow at Walt Disney Imagineering. Hillis was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2001 for advances in parallel computers, parallel software, and parallel storage. More recently, Hillis co-founded Applied Minds, and Applied Invention, an interdisciplinary group of engineers, scientists, and artists. He is a visiting professor at the MIT Media Lab. Biography