Astro Teller, PhD

Astro Teller is currently Captain of Moonshots (CEO) of X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory for building magical, audacious ideas that through science and technology can be brought to reality.

Previously, Astro was the co-founder of Cerebellum Capital, Inc, a hedge fund management firm whose investments were continuously designed, executed, and improved by a software system based on techniques from statistical machine learning. Astro was also the co-founder and CEO of BodyMedia, Inc, a leading wearable body monitoring company that was sold to Jawbone in 2013.

From 2007 to 2010, Astro was the founding CEO of Cerebellum Capital. From 1999 to 2007, Dr. Teller was the founding CEO of BodyMedia, Inc. From 2003 to 2010, Astro was a co-founder and Chairman of Zivio Technologies, an intellectual property holding company. Prior to starting BodyMedia, Dr. Teller was co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Sandbox Advanced Development, an advanced development technology company. Before his tenure as a business executive, Dr. Teller taught at Stanford University and was an engineer and researcher for Phoenix Laser Technologies, Stanford’s Center for Integrated Systems, and The Carnegie Group Incorporated. Dr. Teller holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Stanford University, Masters of Science in symbolic and heuristic computation, also from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a recipient of the prestigious Hertz fellowship.

As a respected scientist and seasoned entrepreneur, Teller has successfully created and grown five companies and holds numerous U.S. patents related to his work in hardware and software technology. Dr. Teller’s work in science, literature, art, and business has appeared in international media from the New York Times to CNN to NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Teller regularly gives invited talks for national and international technology, government, and business forums on the subjects of innovation and the future of intelligent technology.

Astro is also a writer. In 1997 Random House published his first novel, Exegesis, which went on to critical acclaim and publication around the world in many other languages. He has since published a second novel, sold a movie to Paramount, placed many op-ed pieces and journal articles, and his third book, this one a non-fiction work co-authored with his wife, Danielle Teller, called Sacred Cows, about our society’s confusions about marriage and divorce, was published in July of 2014.