Photo: Alexander Migl / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Sebastian Thrun fascinates me because he refuses to stay in one lane. Born in Solingen in 1967 and trained at Bonn, he taught at Carnegie Mellon and Stanford, helped pioneer Google's self-driving car, then founded Udacity and led Kitty Hawk's flying-car ambitions. That arc, from rigorous AI research to mass online education to aerial mobility, shows someone determined to push technology out of the lab and into ordinary lives. The Max Planck Research Award and AAAI fellowship confirm the academic depth. What I respect most is his drive to democratize learning itself, treating knowledge as something everyone deserves access to.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Sebastian Thrun
- Name (Japanese)
- セバスチアン・スラン
- Reading
- せばすちあん・すらん
- Born
- May 14, 1967 (age 59)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Goat
- Origin
- Solingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- computer scientist / university teacher / artificial intelligence researcher / roboticist
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- University of Bonn
Awards & achievements
- 2007 Braunschweiger Forschungspreis
- 2011 Max Planck Research Award
- 2015 The James Smithson Bicentennial Medal
- 2006 AAAI Fellow
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Sebastian Thrun born?
Born May 14, 1967 (age 59).
Where is Sebastian Thrun from?
Sebastian Thrun is from Solingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
What does Sebastian Thrun do?
Sebastian Thrun works as computer scientist, university teacher, artificial intelligence researcher, roboticist.
Computer scientist — see all → · University teacher — see all → · More people from Germany →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-21
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.