Conrad Wolfram (born 10 June 1970) is a British technologist and businessman known for his work in information technology and mathematics education reform. In June 2020, Wolfram released his first book, ''The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age''.

Education and early life

Born in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England, in 1970, Wolfram was educated at

Dragon School ("Reach for the Sun") , established = 1877 , closed = , type = Preparatory day and boarding school and Pre-Prep school , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Emma Goldsm ...

and

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

where he learned to program on a

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

. He was an undergraduate student at Pembroke College, Cambridge where he studied the Natural Sciences tripos graduating with a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

degree from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

Career

Wolfram has been a proponent of

Computer-Based Math Computer-Based Math is an educational project started by Conrad Wolfram in 2010 to promote the idea that routine mathematical calculations should be done with a computer. Conrad Wolfram believes that mathematics education should make the greates ...

—a reform of

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge. Although re ...

to "rebuild the curriculum assuming computers exist." and is the founder of computerbasedmath.org. He argues, "There are a few cases where it is important to do calculations by hand, but these are small fractions of cases. The rest of the time you should assume that students should use a computer just like everyone does in the real world." And that "School mathematics is very disconnected from mathematics used to solve problems in the real world". In an interview with the Guardian he described the replacement of hand calculation by computer use as "democratising expertise". He argues that "A good guide to how and what you should do with a computer in the classroom is what you'd do with it outside. As much as possible, use real-world tools in the classroom in an open-ended way not special education-only closed-ended approaches." In 2009, he spoke about education reform at the

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

Conference at the

EU Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopt ...

. and again at TED Global 2010 where he argued that "Maths should be more practical and more conceptual, but less mechanical," and that "Calculating is the machinery of math - a means to an end." In August 2012, he was a member of the judging panel at the Festival of Code, the culmination of Young Rewired State 2012. Wolfram is also part of Flooved advisory board. On 10 June 2020, Wolfram released his first book, ''The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age''. The book summarises Wolfram's thoughts on the current state of

and sets out a vision for a new core subject based on

computational thinking Computational thinking (CT) is the mental skill to apply concepts, methods, problem solving techniques, and logic reasoning, derived from computing and computer science, to solve problems in all areas, including our daily lives. In education, CT ...

Wolfram research

Wolfram co-founded Wolfram Research Europe Ltd. in 1991 and remains its CEO. In 1996, he additionally became Strategic and International Director of

Wolfram Research Wolfram Research, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational company that creates computational technology. Wolfram's flagship product is the technical computing program Wolfram Mathematica, first released on June 23, 1988. Other products include ...

, Inc., making him also responsible for Wolfram Research Asia Ltd, and communications such as the wolfram.com website. Wolfram Research was founded by his brother

Stephen Wolfram Stephen Wolfram (; born 29 August 1959) is a British-American computer scientist, physicist, and businessman. He is known for his work in computer science, mathematics, and theoretical physics. In 2012, he was named a fellow of the American Ma ...

, the maker of Mathematica software and the

Wolfram Alpha WolframAlpha ( ) is an answer engine developed by Wolfram Research. It answers factual queries by computing answers from externally sourced data. WolframAlpha was released on May 18, 2009 and is based on Wolfram's earlier product Wolfram Mat ...

knowledge engine. Wolfram has led the effort to move the use of Mathematica from pure computation system to development and deployment engine, instigating technology such as the Mathematica Player family and web Mathematica and by pushing greater automation within the system. He has also led the focus on interactive publishing technology with the stated aim of "making new applications as everyday as new documents" claiming that "If a picture is worth a thousand words, an interactive document is worth a thousand pictures." These technologies converged to form the Computable Document Format which Wolfram says can "transfer knowledge in a much higher-bandwidth way".Conrad Wolfram: computation will release data overload
Wired 28 June 2012

Personal life

Wolfram's father

Hugo Wolfram Hugo Wolfram (; 1925–2015) was an English businessman and novelist, of German Jewish origin. He served as managing director of the Lurex Company, makers of the fabric Lurex, and was the author of three novels including ''Into a Neutral Country' ...

was a textile manufacturer and novelist (''Into a Neutral Country'') and his mother Sybil Wolfram was a professor of philosophy at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. He is the younger brother of

. Wolfram is married to primary care

ophthalmology Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...

consultant Stella Hornby and has a daughter, Sophia Wolfram.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfram, Conrad 1970 births Living people People from Oxford People educated at The Dragon School People educated at Eton College Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Businesspeople in information technology English businesspeople English Jews People associated with King's College London Wolfram Research people Mathematics education