Github Readme

Our team

Jeff Hawkins

Founder
More info

Viviane Clay

Executive Director
More info

Niels Leadholm

Research Manager
More info

Celeste Baranski

Treasurer & Secretary
More info

Teri Fry

Director of Operations
More info

Tristan Slominski

Principal Engineer
More info

Will Warren

Community Manager
More info

Hojae Lee

Researcher
More info

Scott Knudstrup

Researcher
More info

Ramy Mounir

Researcher
More info

Board of Directors

Jeff Hawkins

Founder
More info

Viviane Clay

Executive Director
More info

Tricia Tomlinson

Board Member
More info

Max Bennett

Board Member
More info

Harry Saal

Board Member
More info

Ed Colligan

Board Member
More info

Jeff Hawkins

Founder

Jeff is a scientist with a life-long interest in reverse engineering the neocortex. In 2002, he founded and directed the Redwood Neuroscience Institute. In 2005, he co-founded Numenta where he led the research resulting in the Thousand Brains theory of neocortex. In 2024, he created the non-profit Thousand Brains Project to turn the neuroscience theory into a new sensorimotor AI technology. Earlier in his career, he co-founded two companies, Palm and Handspring, where he designed products such as the PalmPilot and Treo smartphone. Jeff has written two books about brain, On Intelligence (2004 with Sandra Blakeslee) and A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence (2021).

Jeff earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 1979. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.

Viviane Clay

Executive Director

Viviane received her doctorates degree (Dr. rer. nat.) in Cognitive Computing and masters degree in Cognitive Science at University of Osnabrück in Germany, where she focused on sensorimotor learning as a key aspect in artificial and human intelligence. At Numenta she continued to pursue her interest in sensorimotor intelligence and the brain with a passion and has been working on the Thousand Brains Project since it’s inception.


In her free time, she produces movies with her husband, listens to music, and takes care of her adorable, one-year-old sensorimotor learning system.

Niels Leadholm

Research Manager

Niels Leadholm is a research scientist and manager of the Thousand Brains Project research team. His career began as a medical doctor, alongside founding a software company in the educational tech sector, but his dream was always to study and understand the nature of intelligence. This dream career became a reality when he enrolled in a PhD in theoretical neuroscience and artificial intelligence, investigating the basis of primate vision, and how AI systems could be made more robust. Now he is excited to take the principles of the Thousand Brains Theory forward to develop the next generation of truly intelligent systems.


When he’s not thinking about AI or the brain, Niels loves to cook – he’s particularly obsessed with noodles and pasta, and is always experimenting with how to elevate the umami and heat levels in his dishes.

Celeste Baranski

Treasurer & Secretary

Celeste has vast experience in high-tech engineering, design, and management. Celeste has been COO at Numenta, and she was CEO and Co-Founder of Vitamin D, one of the first developers to use Numenta’s NuPIC platform. Celeste also served in VP Engineering roles at Palm and at Handspring, where she led the companies’ engineering efforts for handheld computers and smartphones. Celeste has built effective engineering teams, starting from a few to over 500, and has delivered numerous successful and award-winning products.

Celeste holds both a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Teri Fry

Director of Operations

Teri started working with Jeff Hawkins at the Redwood Neuroscience Institute in August 2002. In 2005, Jeff decided to start Numenta, Inc. and asked Teri to join and help support Numenta’s team. As her journey continues, Teri is excited to join and support the Thousand Brains Project team.

Tristan Slominski

Principal Engineer

Experienced in software and product, veteran, former aviator. Here to design, build, and operate current and future Thousand Brains Systems.

Will Warren

Community Manager

Will Warren is the dedicated Community Manager for the Thousand Brains Project, driven by a mission to share this technology’s transformative potential with the world. His career spans leadership roles such as CTO and VP of Engineering. Will brings a wealth of experience scaling teams, driving innovation, and leading initiatives that merge technology with human-centered design. 

 

Will aims to make the Thousand Brains Project a widely adopted reality and to bring this new technology to the world.

Hojae Lee

Researcher

Hojae Lee is a researcher at the Thousand Brains Project, where she focuses on developing biologically-inspired AI systems. She holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, with research expertise spanning deep learning and computational neuroscience. Her interest in understanding biological systems began with her BS degree in Bioengineering, where she explored single-cell level systems. Hojae is passionate about developing a unified theory of intelligence that integrates multiple scales of brain organization, from individual neurons to local circuits and whole-brain dynamics. Outside of her research, she enjoys taking walks with her dog and learning new skills such as judo and wilderness first aid.

Scott Knudstrup

Researcher

Scott Knudstrup received his PhD in Computational Neuroscience from Boston University, where he studied sequence learning, spatiotemporal processing, and predictive coding in the primary visual cortex. While he focused mainly on sensory systems, the dream has always been to unlock the fundamental principles that underlie the neocortex as a whole. As a researcher at the Thousand Brains Project, Scott is thrilled to be part of a team developing new approaches to machine intelligence based on the neocortex and sensorimotor learning. He also holds a BS in Mathematical Biology from the University of Michigan and a BFA in Music from California Institute of the Arts. In his free time, Scott can be found plucking away on his guitar or conducting experiments in the kitchen.

Ramy Mounir

Researcher

Ramy Mounir holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in online compositional learning, biologically inspired perception, and robotics. His research focuses on the learning principles of the brain and the mechanisms underlying perception, reasoning, and prediction, all of which align with the goals of the Thousand Brains Project, which prioritizes understanding the neocortex over achieving benchmark improvements in vision and language applications.

Tricia Tomlinson

Board Member

Tricia Tomlinson has over 40 years of experience in cultivating people, creating corporate cultures and developing workforces as a strategic, competitive advantage in innovative and rapidly changing environments. As CEO of T Squared Consulting, Inc., she provided Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness consulting services since 2012. Since 1992, she led Human Resources organizations, building and managing all aspects of the function worldwide for companies such as Genomic Health, Azul Systems, palm/One, Handspring, Edify and Synopsys. She drove the key philosophies, strategies, programs and activities regarding the creation of world-class cultures and the workforce as competitive advantage in support of the strategic business objectives. In the early ‘80s to early ‘90s she worked at Apple Computer where she helped pioneer cutting-edge human resources programs. Tricia holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College and is a graduate of the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School. She currently serves as a Commissioner for the San Mateo County Civil Service Commission and is on the Board of the Rape Trauma Services organization.

Max Bennett

Board Member

Max S. Bennett is an entrepreneur and researcher. He has cofounded multiple AI companies, holds several patents for AI technologies, and has published numerous scientific papers on the topics of evolutionary neuroscience and intelligence. He is the author of the acclaimed A Brief History of Intelligence, in which he developed a new approach to understanding the evolution of the human brain. He has been featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Bennett is currently the Cofounder and Chief Product Officer of Bluecore, a company that provides agentic AI technologies to some of the largest retailers in the world. Bluecore has been featured in the annual Inc. 500 fastest growing companies in the US, as well as Glassdoor’s 50 best places to work in the US. Bennett has a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, summa cum laude, with a degree in economics and mathematics.

Harry Saal

Board Member

In 2002, Dr. Harry J. Saal was chosen by the US Department of Justice to lead the Technical Committee charged with monitoring and enforcing the Microsoft Antitrust case, and he served as Chairman of the Committee through the May 2011 expiration of the Judgment.

Harry founded Nestar Systems, a pioneer in local area network systems, in 1978. In 1986, Harry became the founder and CEO of Network General Corporation, the first company wholly dedicated to the area of network diagnostics. From 1993 through 1995, Harry served as founding CEO and President of Smart Valley, Inc., a non-profit organization chartered to create a regional electronic community based on an advanced information infrastructure and the collective ability to use it.

Harry is active in philanthropy and community affairs, and serves on the board of the American Institute of Mathematics, among others. Harry holds a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University.

Ed Colligan

Board Member

Ed came to Silicon Valley in 1985 to be part of the personal technology revolution and since that time has established himself as a leading product and marketing innovator. He was an instrumental contributor to groundbreaking products and brands in personal computing.

Ed was part of building the Radius brand to be synonymous with graphics and graphics imaging at the outset of the desktop publishing revolution. Then he embarked on a 16-year journey to define and establish the next generation of personal computing – the handheld computer. Ed was the first vice president of marketing for Palm Computing where he helped develop the original Palm Pilot and the Palm brand. During Ed’s tenure the company shipped the original Palm Pilot, Palm III and Palm V handhelds establishing Palm and the Palm OS as the market leader with more than 90% market share. Ed left Palm to co-found Handspring where he and the team created the forbearer of all future smartphones; the Handspring Treo. Ed led the transaction that reunited the Palm and Handspring teams into one company while establishing relationships with wireless carriers globally and driving Palm’s annual smartphone business to more than $2 billion. As the CEO of Palm, Ed spearheaded the transformation that created the highly acclaimed WebOS platform and Palm Pre line of smartphones.

Ed spent several years doing impact investing and mentoring next generation entrepreneurs. He is a board member of POPS Worldwide, Levered Learning, Inc., and an advisor to a host of other start-up ventures. Ed recently left the board of Numenta to join the board of the nonprofit Thousand Brains Project.

A few years ago Ed redirected his energies toward climate change. He is currently the Chief Strategy Officer and a member of the BOD of Low Carbon, Ltd., contributing to utility scale renewable energy developments globally.