Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin
Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (born August 21, 1973) is a Russian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He co-founded Google along with Larry Page in 1998. As of the early 2020s, Brin is one of the wealthiest individuals in the world and continues to serve as a board member and controlling shareholder of Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company.
Brin was born in Moscow, Soviet Union, to a Jewish family. His family emigrated to the United States when he was six years old to escape religious persecution. He attended the University of Maryland, earning a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and computer science, and later pursued a PhD in computer science at Stanford University, where he met Larry Page.
Career and contributions
While at Stanford, Brin and Page developed a search algorithm called PageRank, which became the foundation of the Google search engine. They launched Google from a rented garage in Menlo Park, California. The company rapidly grew, introducing innovations such as targeted advertising through AdWords and the webmail service Gmail.
Brin's research interests also include data mining, information retrieval, and distributed computing. He has been involved in the development of Google Glass and other ambitious projects under X, Alphabet's moonshot factory. In 2019, Brin stepped down as president of Alphabet but remained as a board member.
Personal life and philanthropy
Brin was married to Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe, from 2007 to 2015; they have two children. He is a major donor to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's research, having been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease himself. He also supports immigrant rights and education initiatives.