Neil Gershenfeld directs the Center for Bits and Atoms at the MIT Media Laboratory. His research group investigates the relationship between the content of information and its physical representation, from molecular quantum computers to virtuosic musical instruments. Gershenfeld has also led the Media Lab's Things That Think industrial research consortium, which pioneered moving computation out of conventional computers and into the rest of the world, and works with the Media Lab Asia on coordinating the technical guidance for this ambitious international effort based in India that is investigating technology for global development.

Technology from his laboratory has been seen and used in settings including the Museum of Modern Art, the White House/Smithsonian Millennium celebration, automobile safety systems, Las Vegas shows. Gershenfeld has developed a computerized cello for Yo-Yo Ma, a stage for the Flying Karamazov Brothers, and instrumentation used by rural Indian villagers and nomadic reindeer herders. He is the author of numerous technical publications, patents, and the best-selling books "When Things Start To Think," "The Nature of Mathematical Modeling," and "The Physics of Information Technology." Dr. Gershenfeld has a BA in Physics with High Honors from Swarthmore College, a Ph.D. from Cornell University, was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows, and a member of the research staff at Bell Labs.