Peter Diamandis

Peter H. Diamandis (born May 20, 1961) is an American marketer, engineer, physician, and entrepreneur of Greek-American ethnicity.

He is best known for being founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, cofounder and executive chairman of Singularity University and coauthor of The New York Times bestsellers Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, The Future is Faster than You Think, How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives and BOLD: How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World. He is former CEO and cofounder of the Zero Gravity Corporation, cofounder and vice chairman of Space Adventures Ltd., founder and chairman of the Rocket Racing League, cofounder of the International Space University, cofounder of Planetary Resources, cofounder of Celularity, founder of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, vice chairman and cofounder of Human Longevity, Inc.

Diamandis was born in The Bronx, New York.

His parents, both Greek immigrants, were in the medical business.

His father was a physician.

From a very early age, Diamandis expressed a keen interest in space exploration.

At age 8, he began giving lectures on space to his family and friends.

At age 12, Diamandis won first place in the Estes Rocket Design Competition for building a launch system able to simultaneously launch three rockets.

After graduating from Great Neck North High School in 1979, Diamandis attended Hamilton College for his first year, then transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study biology and physics.

During his second year at MIT in 1980, Diamandis cofounded Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.

After graduating from MIT in 1983 he entered Harvard Medical School to pursue his MD through the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.

During his second year of medical school, he cofounded the Space Generation Foundation to promote projects and programs that would help the "Space Generation"—all those born since the flight of Sputnik—get off the planet.

In 1986, Diamandis put his medical degree on hold and returned to MIT to pursue a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics, conducting research at NASA Johnson Space Center, the MIT Man Vehicle Laboratory and MIT's Whitehead Biomedical Institute.

After completing his M.S. at MIT, Diamandis returned to Harvard completing his M.D.

In 1987, during his third year of medical school, Diamandis cofounded International Space University with Todd Hawley, Walter Anderson, Christopher Mau and Robert Richards.

During his last year of medical school in 1989, Diamandis was acting as managing director of the International Space University and CEO of International Micro Space, a microsatellite launch company.

Diamandis has participated on the boards of several companies throughout his career, including Hyperloop and Cogswell Polytechnical College.

He has also won several awards in his field, including Economist "No Boundaries" Innovator of the Year, the Neil Armstrong Award for Aerospace Achievement and Leadership, the World Technology Award, presented by the World Technology Counsel, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Innovation, among others.

Diamandis served as the managing director and chief operating officer of the university until 1989.

Today, ISU offers a Space Studies program and two accredited Master of Space Studies degrees.

It has grown into a $30 million university campus headquartered in Strasbourg, France.

Diamandis cofounded Microsat Launch Systems, later renamed International MicroSpace Inc., in 1989 during his fourth year of medical school and served as the company's CEO.

IMI designed a small launcher called Orbital Express (later renamed "ORBEX" ) for taking 100-kg payloads to low-Earth orbit, collaborating with Bristol Aerospace for the manufacture.

In 1991, Diamandis founded Constellation Communications, Inc., one of five low-Earth orbit satellite constellations for voice telephony.

The company planned to deploy an equatorial ring of 10 satellites to provide communications primarily to Brazil and Indonesia.

The company won a $100 million SDIO contract for one launch plus nine options and was sold to CTA Inc of Rockville, MD in 1993 for $250,000.

Diamandis joined CTA for one year as VP of Commercial Space Programs post-acquisition.

The ORBEX contract was eventually cancelled "because of a glut of small launchers," and CTA put the project on hold and eventually cancelled the project.

Diamandis remained director until 1993, when it was acquired by Angel Technology.

In 1994, Diamandis founded the X PRIZE Foundation after the failure of International MicroSpace, Inc and reading Charles Lindbergh's The Spirit of St. Louis.

He serves as chairman and CEO of the foundation.

X PRIZE was created to fund and operate a $10 million incentive competition intended to inspire a new generation of private passenger-carrying spaceships.

Between 1995 and 1999, Diamandis was the president of Angel Technologies Corporation, a commercial communications company that intended to develop wireless broadband communications networks based on a high-altitude aircraft.

The prize was announced on May 18, 1996, in St. Louis, MO without any purse money or any teams.

The prize was ultimately funded through an insurance policy underwritten by the Anousheh and Hamid Ansari Family and renamed the Ansari X PRIZE in their honor.

The $10 million competition attracted 26 teams from seven countries as teams and was won on October 4, 2004, by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a team run by famed aviation designer Burt Rutan and funded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen.

The winning vehicle, SpaceShipOne, was piloted to space twice within two weeks to win the competition.

The first flight was made on September 29, 2004, piloted by Mike Melvill, and the winning, second flight was made on October 4, 2004, by pilot Brian Binnie.

SpaceShipOne was the world's first non-government piloted spacecraft and is now hanging in the National Air and Space Museum adjacent to the Spirit of St. Louis aircraft.

In January 2005, the X PRIZE Foundation Board of Trustees expanded the focus of the X PRIZE to address four different group areas: Exploration (oceans and space), Life Sciences, Energy and Environment, and Education and Global Development.