David Spivak

David Spivak received a PhD in mathematics from UC Berkeley in 2007; his thesis was in algebraic topology. Noticing category theory’s impressive ability to organize and layer abstractions and to interconnect widely different disciplines, he set out to show that mathematics’ most abstract field was also its most applicable. After spending ten years at MIT, funded in part by NASA, the US departments of defense and commerce, and private companies, he co-founded Topos Institute, an independent non-profit research institute that works to shape technology for the public benefit by applying the language of category theory. David's work ranges from database integration to knowledge representation, from materials science to dynamical systems, all with a focus on compositionality and interoperability. He has written three books on applications of category theory.