Professor Damon Horowitz

Damon Horowitz, Ph.D. is a philosophy professor and serial entrepreneur. He recently joined Google as In-House Philosopher / Director of Engineering, heading development of several initiatives involving social and search.
 
Damon came to Google from Aardvark, the social search engine, where he was cofounder and CTO, overseeing product development and research strategy. Prior to Aardvark, he built several companies around applications of intelligent language processing. He cofounded Perspecta (acquired by Excite), was lead architect for Novation Biosciences (acquired by Agilent), and cofounded NewsDB (now Daylife).
 
He teaches courses in philosophy, cognitive science, and computer science at several institutions, including Stanford, NYU, University of Pennsylvania, and San Quentin State Prison. He earned his B.A. from Columbia, his M.S. from the MIT Media Lab, and his Ph.D. from Stanford.
 
Watch Damon Horowitz calls for a “moral operating system”, TEDxSoMa – Damon Horowitz – 1/22/10, and Philosophy at San Quentin Prison, Damon Horowitz | STAN 2011. Read Google’s in-house philosopher: Technologists need a “moral operating system” and From Technologist to Philosopher: Why you should quit your technology job and get a Ph.D. in the humanities. Visit his Google+ page.