Alex Mullen (born 3 March 1992) is an American memory competitor, three-time world memory champion, and physician.Jordyn Taylor
"The Person With the World's Best Memory Is a Millennial From the US"
in ''

Mic (media company) Mic is an American internet and media company based in New York City that caters to millennials. Originally known as PolicyMic, it rose to prominence after its on-the-ground coverage of the Tunisian Revolution in 2011. In April 2014, the comp ...

'', March 2016. The first American to win the world title, he won for three consecutive years the 2015, 2016, and 2017 World Memory Championships and held the

IAM IAM may refer to: Concepts * Identity and access management, a concept that combines business processes, policies and technologies * Indo-Aryan migration, the theory that speakers of Indo-Aryan languages migrated into the Indian subcontinent dur ...

world No. 1 ranking from 2016-2019. He was also the 2022 Memory League World Champion. Along with his wife, he runs ''Mullen Memory'' - a nonprofit which "provides free resources exploring memory palaces as learning tools."

Personal life

Mullen was born in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

.Callie Bryant
"World Memory Champion, Oxford Native Alex Mullen Teaches Memorization"
in HottyToddy.com, 2 February 2016. He grew up in

Oxford, Mississippi Oxford is a city and college town in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Oxford lies 75 miles (121 km) south-southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, and is the county seat of Lafayette County. Founded in 1837, it was named after the British city of Ox ...

and attended Oxford High School, where he competed on the varsity swimming and tennis teams.Gary Pettus
Memory Serves Alex Mullen, New World Mental Athlete Champion"
in University of Mississippi News, 28 January 2016. In his senior year, Mullen was a National Merit Finalist and fourth award winner at the

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is an annual science fair in the United States. It is owned and administered by the Society for Science, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. Each May, more th ...

for a team project with his future wife, Cathy Chen."Oxford High School National Merit Finalists"
2010."Intel ISEF 2010 Grand Awards Ceremony"
14 May 2010. He attended

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

and studied biomedical engineering and applied mathematics."2014 JHU Engineering Convocation Awards Ceremony"
, 5 May 2014. He received his M.D. from the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment ...

School of Medicine in 2019. Both he and his wife received the Jim and Donna Barksdale Scholarship to cover the full cost of attendance of medical school. In 2020, he began a diagnostic radiology residency at the

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established in 1936, the institution became a four-year campus in 1966 and a fully autonomous univ ...

.Rosemary Hutzler Raun
"The Mnemonist"
in Johns Hopkins Magazine, 9 October 2020.

Notable competitions

2015

*''

World Memory Championships The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of memory sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time. The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of ...

'' (16-18 Dec., Chengdu, China): 1st place overall. Mullen became the tenth individual, and the first American, to win the world championship since its inception in 1991. He also received the title of international grandmaster of memory, the highest title bestowed by the World Memory Sports Council, at this event.

2016

*''

USA Memory Championship The USA Memory Championship is an annual competition that took place every spring in New York City until 2016, and is currently held in Orlando, Florida, after an online qualifier. It was founded by Tony Dottino, President of Dottino Consulting Gro ...

'' (9 May, Hershey, PA): 1st place overall. Mullen became the ninth individual to win the American national championship since its inception in 1998. *''US Open'' (2–3 July, Los Angeles, CA): 1st place overall. With 8,794 total points, Mullen achieved the highest total score in memory sports history (at the time, taking into account adjustments in scoring standards), giving him the world No. 1 ranking. *''Memoriad'' (8-10 Nov., Las Vegas, NV): gold: speed cards, hour numbers, silver: names and faces, spoken numbers. *''European Open'' (3-4 Dec., London, UK): 1st place overall. With 9,143 total points, Mullen broke his earlier mark for highest total score (at the time). *''

'' (15-17 Dec., Singapore): 1st place overall.

2017

*''

(

)'' (1-3 Dec., Jakarta, Indonesia): 1st place overall. Most world records broken at the event, 4. With 9,061 total points (adjusted), Mullen broke his earlier record for highest total score (at the time).

2021

*''Pan American Open ( Memory League)'' (15-16 May): 1st place overall. Mullen competed alongside 15 other online qualifiers using the Memory League format, which consists of digital, head-to-head matches composed of shorter disciplines. In the final, Mullen defeated Ryo Kobayashi of Japan.

2022

*'' Memory League World Championship'' (16-31 Jan.): 1st place overall. Mullen competed alongside 15 other online qualifiers in the fourth rendition of the Memory League World Championship, first held in 2014 under the name Extreme Memory Tournament. In the final, Mullen defeated 2019 IAM World Memory Champion

Andrea Muzii Andrea Muzii (born October 13, 1999) is an Italian memory competitor, former speedcuber, who became IAM World Memory Champion in 2019 and IAM World No.1 ranked athlete. He was the first memory athlete to achieve the title of Grandmaster of Memor ...

of Italy.

Records

Mullen has held world records in 12 different

memory sport Memory sport, sometimes referred to as competitive memory or the mind sport of memory, refers to competitions in which participants attempt to memorize then recall different forms of information, under certain guidelines. The sport has been formal ...

disciplines, most involving the memorization of numbers or playing cards. He is the first person to memorize the order of a deck of playing cards in under 20 seconds at an official competition. He is also the first to memorize more than 3,000 decimal digits in one hour.

Media appearances

Mullen was a two-time contestant on the final season of the Chinese television program

The Brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ i ...

in 2017, defeating his opponent Wang Feng, the 2010 and 2011 World Memory Champion, by accurately recalling the airline routes, departure and arrival locations, and times of 50 flights. He was also a contestant on Superhuman, the American version of The Brain, winning his episode by memorizing a deck of cards flashed onscreen at two cards per second.Andy Belt
"Magnificent memory means money for Oxford native Alex Mullen"
in OxfordEagle.com, 29 June 2017. Mullen has been featured in

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

,Ian Frisch
"Lessons from America's First Memory World Champion"
in NewYorker.com, 18 May 2016.

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...