EVENT SERIES:
Monday, April 17, 2006 - 11:00pm to Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - 1:00am (ended)
223 Moses Hall
Larry Brilliant, M.D.
Executive Director, Google.org
Larry Brilliant's career path, as unlikely as it is inspirational, has proven worthy of his surname. Trained as a doctor, he was living in a Himalayan monastery in the early 1970s when his guru told him he should help rid the world of smallpox. He joined the World Health Organization's eradication project, directed efforts to eliminate the disease in India and eventually presided over the last case of smallpox on the planet.
Not content with beating a single disease, he founded the nonprofit Seva Foundation, which has cured more than two million people of blindness in 15 countries (through innovative surgery, self-sufficient eye care systems, and low-cost manufacturing of intraocular lenses). Outside the medical field, he found time to cofound the legendary online community The Well, and run two public technology companies. Time and WIRED magazines call him a "technology visionary." Shortly after he won a TED Prize, Google executives asked Brilliant to run their new philanthropic arm, Google.org.