Myhrvold is married to Rosemarie Havranek, whom he met while studying at Princeton. They have twin sons, Conor and Cameron A. Myhrvold.<ref name="hertz-2017">{{cite web |title=The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Welcomes Two New Directors |url=https://hertzfoundation.org/newsevents/pressrelease/298/The-Fannie-and-John-Hertz-Foundation-Welcomes-Two-New-Directors |publisher=The Hertz Foundation |access-date=15 July 2019 |date=April 25, 2017}}</ref><ref name="inventfuture-2009">{{cite web |title=Inventing the future: The very cool world of Nathan Myhrvold *83 |url=https://paw.princeton.edu/article/inventing-future |publisher=Princeton University |access-date=23 October 2020 |date=January 28, 2009}}</ref> Cameron studied biology at Princeton, and then did his PhD at Harvard's Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology Program. After that he got a postdoc position at [[Pardis Sabeti]] lab in Harvard, working closely with [[Feng Zhang]] on [[CRISPR]]. After his postdoc, he started his own lab at Princeton.<ref>[https://molbio.princeton.edu/people/cameron-myhrvold Cameron A. Myhrvold at the Department of Molecular Biology in Princeton]</ref><ref>[https://myhrvoldlab.com/ The Myhrvold Lab at Princeton]</ref>
Myhrvold is married to Rosemarie Havranek, whom he met while studying at Princeton. They have twin sons, Conor and Cameron A. Myhrvold.<ref name="hertz-2017">{{cite web |title=The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Welcomes Two New Directors |url=https://hertzfoundation.org/newsevents/pressrelease/298/The-Fannie-and-John-Hertz-Foundation-Welcomes-Two-New-Directors |publisher=The Hertz Foundation |access-date=15 July 2019 |date=April 25, 2017}}</ref><ref name="inventfuture-2009">{{cite web |title=Inventing the future: The very cool world of Nathan Myhrvold *83 |url=https://paw.princeton.edu/article/inventing-future |publisher=Princeton University |access-date=23 October 2020 |date=January 28, 2009}}</ref> Cameron studied biology at Princeton, and then did his PhD at Harvard's Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology Program. After that he got a postdoc position at [[Pardis Sabeti]] lab in Harvard, working closely with [[Feng Zhang]] on [[CRISPR]]. After his postdoc, he started his own lab at Princeton.<ref>[https://molbio.princeton.edu/people/cameron-myhrvold Cameron A. Myhrvold at the Department of Molecular Biology in Princeton]</ref><ref>[https://myhrvoldlab.com/ The Myhrvold Lab at Princeton]</ref> it can also be seen that he had travelled to [[Jeffery Epstein]] island
Nathan Myhrvold also has a younger brother, Cameron.<ref name="new-yorker-97"/>
Nathan Myhrvold also has a younger brother, Cameron.<ref name="new-yorker-97"/>
This article's lead sectionmay be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(October 2021)
Nathan Paul Myhrvold (born August 3, 1959), formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, is co-founder of Intellectual Ventures and the principal author of Modernist Cuisine and its successor books. Myhrvold was listed as co-inventor on 17[2] U.S. patents at Microsoft and is co-inventor on over 900 other U.S. patents issued to his corporation and its affiliates.[3]
Myhrvold left Cambridge to co-found a computer startup in Oakland, California. The company, Dynamical Systems Research Inc. (DSR), sought to produce Mondrian, a clone of IBM's TopViewmultitasking environment for DOS. Myhrvold served as DSR's president.[4] Microsoft purchased DSR in 1986 for $1.5M in stock.[10] Myhrvold worked at Microsoft for 13 years in a variety of executive positions, culminating in his appointment as the company's first chief technology officer in 1996.[11] At Microsoft he founded Microsoft Research in 1991.[12]
After Microsoft, in 2000 Myhrvold co-founded Intellectual Ventures,[13] a patent portfolio developer and broker in the areas of technology and energy, which has acquired over 30,000 patents.[14] Intellectual Ventures takes part in the market for inventions and patents, buying patents from companies and inventors under the assumption the patents will be more valuable in the future. IV also files patents through the work of a team of on-site inventors. Startup companies spun out of IV, including Kymeta, Echodyne,[15] and TerraPower, have developed commercial products from IV's inventions. Through its Global Good unit, which Myhrvold founded in collaboration with Bill Gates, IV has also invented and produced commercial products, such as improved vaccine coolers and milking cans, aimed at low-income markets in Africa and Asia.[16] However, in most cases, IV's inventions are limited to the descriptions provided in their patents, which are bundled into portfolios for licensing.
Myhrvold has described his goal for Intellectual Ventures as helping to create a market for patent-backed securities.[17] The company's business practices have caused controversy, however, with some deprecating the firm as a patent troll.[18][19] Myhrvold has publicly defended his firm's practices, arguing that they foster innovation by serving as a marketplace for intellectual property. He has noted that many of the largest companies in Silicon Valley, including Google, Apple, and Facebook, have also bought large patent portfolios and used litigation to protect them, but he has criticized them as focusing too much on creating "tools or toys for rich people."[20]
In the popular press, Myhrvold's company Intellectual Ventures has been repeatedly accused of acting as patent trolls and stifling innovation by buying patents and then forcing inventors to license their ideas by means of litigation. Walt Mossberg interviewed Myhrvold about Intellectual Ventures' role as a "patent troll" during the 10th annual All Things Digital conference.[21]This American Life's Laura Sydell ran an investigative story about patent trolling and Intellectual Ventures' role in that business.[22]
According to The New York Times, Intellectual Ventures at one point controlled nearly 70,000 intellectual property assets (patents and patents pending) that it has used to generate approximately $3 billion in revenues, primarily in the form of license fees from large corporations. The company responds that it has returned more than $500 million to individual inventors and most of the remaining revenues to its investors.[23]
Nuclear power
Myhrvold is vice chairman of TerraPower, a spin-out of Intellectual Ventures that is developing a new kind of nuclear reactor, known as a traveling-wave reactor, that is designed to be safer, cheaper, and cleaner than current nuclear power plants. In 2020, the company launched a joint venture with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to build and operate a prototype reactor of this kind that combines a molten-sodium reactor with a molten salt energy storage system.[24]
After the Science Museum in London successfully built the computing section of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine #2 in 1991, Myhrvold funded the construction of the output section, which performs both printing and stereotyping of calculated results. He also commissioned the construction of a second complete Difference Engine #2 for himself, which was on display at the Computer History MuseuminMountain View, California, from May 10, 2008 to January 31, 2016 and currently resides in the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory.[36][37][38][39][40]
In research presented at scientific conferences and published in the astronomy journal Icarus, Myhrvold has been a vocal critic of procedures and results about asteroid diameters published by the NEOWISE team.[27][41][42][43][44] A preprint of his work on the subject[45] received wide press coverage[46][47][48] prompting NASA to release a public statement defending their published research and pointing out the lack of peer review and methodological errors in Myhrvold's preprint.[49]
Cooking
Myhrvold cooking a meal
While working as chief technology officer at Microsoft, Myhrvold took leave to earn his culinary diploma from École de Cuisine La Varenne in France.[20] Myhrvold's early culinary training was as an observer and unpaid apprentice at Rover's, one of Seattle's leading restaurants, with Chef Thierry Rautureau.[50] Myhrvold is the principal author of a culinary text entitled Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking,[51] released in March 2011, on the application of scientific research principles and new techniques and technology to cooking.[52] That book, which earned a James Beard Foundation Award for "cookbook of the year" in 2012, was followed by the books Modernist Cuisine at Home,[53]The Photography of Modernist Cuisine,[54]Modernist Bread,[55] and Modernist Pizza,[56] all self-published by Myhrvold and with him as lead author. Myhrvold was part of a team that won first place at the world barbecue championships in Memphis.[20] He has appeared as a guest judge on Top Chef.
Advocacy
In interviews with CNN, SuperFreakonomics author Stephen Dubner, and Scientific American, Myhrvold has discussed ways to reverse some of the effects of global warming/climate change by using geoengineering.[57] Myhrvold and other inventors working with Intellectual Ventures have proposed several approaches, including one that would use hoses, suspended from helium balloons 25 kilometers (16 mi) above the Earth at high latitudes, to emit sulfur dioxide, which is known to scatter light.[58][59] Another approach would stimulate the formation and brightening of marine clouds to reflect more sunlight back into space.[57]
Myhrvold endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[68]
Personal life
Myhrvold is married to Rosemarie Havranek, whom he met while studying at Princeton. They have twin sons, Conor and Cameron A. Myhrvold.[69][70] Cameron studied biology at Princeton, and then did his PhD at Harvard's Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology Program. After that he got a postdoc position at Pardis Sabeti lab in Harvard, working closely with Feng ZhangonCRISPR. After his postdoc, he started his own lab at Princeton.[71][72] it can also be seen that he had travelled to Jeffery Epstein island
Nathan Myhrvold also has a younger brother, Cameron.[4]
^Myhrvold, Nathan P. "An Empirical Examination of the NEOWISE Results and Data Analysis". Abstract of talk presented at the 229th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, January 5, 2017.https://aas.org/files/aas229-abstracts-pdf.pdf Retrieved January 6, 2018.
^Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet (2011). Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. Bellevue, Washington: The Cooking Lab. ISBN978-0982761007. OCLC711381030.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Auletta, Ken, "The Highwaymen", Harvest Books, 1998. ISBN0-15-600573-5 — cf Chapter 17: The Microsoft Provocateur: Nathan Myhrvold, Bill Gates Corporate Gadfly.
Edstrom, Jennifer and Eller, Marlin, "Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft From The Inside: How The World's Richest Corporation Wields Its Power", Holt Paperbacks, 1999. ISBN0-8050-5755-2