Demis Hassabis
Born 1976 · Age 49
British AI researcher, entrepreneur and neuroscientist. Co‑founder & CEO of DeepMind (acquired by Google) and founder/CEO of Isomorphic Labs. Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate (2024).
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Life & Career Timeline
Born in London
Born to Costas (Greek Cypriot) and Angela (Singaporean) Hassabis in North London.
Reached chess Master standard (Elo ~2300)
Achieved Master standard in chess at age 13 with an Elo rating of around 2300; captained England junior chess teams.
Completed A-levels at 16
Finished A-level exams at age 16 (then had additional time before university).
Bought first computer; self-taught programming
Purchased a ZX Spectrum funded by chess winnings and taught himself to program; wrote early AI programs on home computers (Commodore Amiga).
Won Bullfrog 'Win-a-job' contest; joined Bullfrog
Won an Amiga Power competition that led to a job at Bullfrog Productions; began level design then lead-programming and co-design on Theme Park during gap year.
Co-designed and lead-programmed Theme Park (Bullfrog)
Co-designed and lead-programmed the simulation game Theme Park (a major early commercial success that sold several million copies).
Matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge
Started undergraduate studies in Computer Science at Queens' College, Cambridge (having taken a gap year to work at Bullfrog).
Represented Cambridge in Varsity Chess (1995)
Played for Cambridge in the annual Oxford–Cambridge varsity chess match.
Represented Cambridge in Varsity Chess (1996)
Played for Cambridge in the annual Oxford–Cambridge varsity chess match.
Graduated Cambridge (Double First, Computer Science)
Completed the Computer Science Tripos at Queens' College, Cambridge, graduating with a double first in 1997.
Joined Lionhead Studios; lead AI programmer on Black & White
After graduating, worked at Lionhead Studios (Peter Molyneux) and served as lead AI programmer on the god game Black & White (released 2001).
Founded Elixir Studios
Left Lionhead to found Elixir Studios, an independent games developer based in London; signed publishing deals with Eidos, Vivendi Universal and Microsoft.
World Pentamind Champion (1st of five wins)
Won the all-round world board games championship, the Pentamind (first of five titles in 1998, later in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003).
World Pentamind Champion (second win)
Second Pentamind world all-round board games championship title.
World Decamentathlon Champion (2003, 2004)
Won the World Decamentathlon Championship (listed as twice: 2003 and 2004).
Released Republic: The Revolution (Elixir)
Elixir's ambitious political-simulation game Republic: The Revolution was released after delays; the final product was reduced from its original vision and received mixed reviews.
World Pentamind Champion (fifth win)
Fifth Pentamind world championship title (1998,1999,2000,2001,2003).
Released Evil Genius (Elixir)
Elixir released Evil Genius, a Bond‑villain simulator which was better received than Republic.
Elixir Studios closed; IP/tech rights sold
In April 2005 Elixir's intellectual property and technology rights were sold to various publishers and the studio was closed.
Landmark PNAS paper on hippocampus, memory and imagination
Published a landmark PNAS paper showing patients with hippocampal damage were unable to imagine new experiences, linking episodic memory and imagination; listed among Science's Top 10 breakthroughs of the year.
Visiting scientist roles at MIT & Harvard
Worked as a visiting scientist jointly at MIT (Tomaso Poggio's lab) and Harvard before/around his Gatsby fellowship.
Completed PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience (UCL)
Awarded a PhD from UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (thesis: 'Neural processes underpinning episodic memory'), supervised by Eleanor Maguire.
Henry Wellcome postdoctoral fellowship (Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit)
Received a Henry Wellcome postdoctoral research fellowship to join the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at UCL, working with Peter Dayan.
Co‑founded DeepMind
Co‑founded DeepMind Technologies in London with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman, recruiting colleagues including David Silver. Mission: 'solve intelligence' and apply it to real-world problems.
Named on Wired's 'Smart 50'
Recognized on Wired's Smart 50 list (2013).
Deep Q-Network (DQN) Atari breakthrough announced
DeepMind announced a deep Q-network capable of learning to play Atari games at superhuman level from raw pixels — a pioneering deep reinforcement learning result.
DeepMind named Cambridge Computer Laboratory Company of the Year
DeepMind received the Cambridge Computer Laboratory Company of the Year award in 2014.
Google (Alphabet) acquired DeepMind
Google purchased DeepMind for £400 million (reported figure), DeepMind remained largely independent within Google/Alphabet.
AlphaGo beat European champion Fan Hui 5–0
AlphaGo defeated reigning European Go champion Fan Hui 5–0, a major milestone demonstrating deep learning + tree search success on Go.
DeepMind reduced Google data‑center cooling energy by ~40%
DeepMind applied ML to cut energy used by cooling systems in Google's data centers by about 40% (reported achievement).
Received multiple technology & innovation awards (selected)
Acknowledged with awards such as FT Digital Entrepreneur of the Year and Wired Leadership in Innovation (listed among 2016 recognitions).
AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol 4–1
AlphaGo beat Go world champion Lee Sedol 4–1 in March 2016, a landmark public demonstration of AI capability.
AlphaGo defeated Ke Jie; further Go dominance
AlphaGo beat world's #1 player Ke Jie (series of matches in 2017), marking continued AI progress in Go.
Named in Time 100 (2017)
Included in Time magazine's Time 100 list of most influential people (2017).
Honorary doctorate, Imperial College London
Awarded an honorary doctorate by Imperial College London.
Appointed Adviser to UK's Government Office for AI
Named an advisor to the UK Government Office for Artificial Intelligence.
Elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, recognizing major contributions to science and AI.
AlphaFold won CASP13 (protein structure prediction)
AlphaFold achieved the top result in CASP13 (December 2018), a major breakthrough toward predicting protein 3D structure from sequence.
Named to multiple influence lists & awards (selected)
Received honors including inclusion in influential lists and institutional fellowships/honorary roles (e.g., various 2019 recognitions).
AlphaFold2 announced CASP14 results (major leap)
AlphaFold2 achieved breakthrough performance at CASP14 (November 2020), with predicted structures approaching experimental accuracy.
Founded / launched Isomorphic Labs (Alphabet)
Alphabet (via Demis) launched Isomorphic Labs, an AI-driven drug discovery company spun out of DeepMind/Alphabet (Hassabis associated as founder/CEO).
AlphaFold DB released; ~200M protein structures predicted
DeepMind used AlphaFold2 to predict ~200 million protein structures and released the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database in collaboration with EMBL‑EBI, making predictions openly available.
Advisor to Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA)
Named an advisor to the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency.
Signed statement prioritizing AI extinction-risk mitigation
Signed a public statement asserting that mitigating AI extinction risk should be a global priority alongside other major risks.
Honorary degree, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Awarded an honorary degree by EPFL in recognition of scientific contributions (listed 2023).
Received major scientific awards (Lasker, Breakthrough, Gairdner, etc.)
Awarded multiple prestigious honors in 2023 for AlphaFold/AI-for-science including Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, Canada Gairdner International Award, and more.
Knighted (Knight Bachelor)
Appointed Knight Bachelor in 2024 for services to artificial intelligence.
Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry (shared with John M. Jumper)
Joint recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AI contributions to protein-structure prediction (AlphaFold).
Subject of documentary 'The Thinking Game' (Tribeca premiere)
The Thinking Game, a documentary about Hassabis, premiered at the Tribeca Festival in 2024.
Listed on Time 100 (2025)
Included in the Time 100 list of the most influential people (featured on a Time cover in 2025).
Key Achievement Ages
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