Peter Diamandis - Distinguished Speaker
Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 07:30pm
Contact UB Office of Special Events

Peter Diamandis | Nov. 14 | Center for the Arts

Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation

 

Peter Diamandis, MD, is an international pioneer in the fields of innovation, incentive competitions and commercial space. In 2014 he was named one of "The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders" by FORTUNE Magazine.

In the field of innovation, Diamandis is founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, best known for its $10 million Ansari XPRIZE for private spaceflight.

Diamandis is also the co-founder and vice-chairman of Human Longevity Inc. (HLI), a genomics and cell therapy-based diagnostic and therapeutic company focused on extending the healthy human lifespan. He is also the executive co-founder of Singularity University, a graduate-level Silicon Valley institution that studies exponentially growing technologies, their ability to transform industries and solve humanity’s grand challenges.

In the field of commercial space, Diamandis is co-founder/co-chairman of Planetary Resources, a company designing spacecraft to enable the detection and prospecting of asteroid for precious materials. He is also the co-founder of Space Adventures and Zero-Gravity Corporation.

Diamandis is the New York Times bestselling co-author of “Abundance The Future Is Better Than You Think” and “BOLD – How to go Big, Create Wealth & Impact the World.”

He earned an undergraduate degree in molecular genetics and a graduate degree in aerospace engineering from MIT, and received his MD from Harvard Medical School.

Diamandis’ mission is to open the space frontier for humanity. His personal motto is: "The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself."

In 2016, the Greek government honored him by issuing a 1.2 Euro stamp into circulation. Also in 2016, the book “How To Make A Spaceship – A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight,” Diamandis’ biography and the story of the XPRIZE was written by Julian Guthrie with a foreword by Richard Branson and an afterword by Stephen Hawking.

Location UB Center for the Arts