Dr. Nathan Myhrvold founded Intellectual Ventures (IV) in 2000 after retiring from his position as chief strategist and chief technology officer of Microsoft Corporation. During his 14-year tenure at Microsoft, Myhrvold helped spearhead many of the company’s most successful products and founded Microsoft Research. Myhrvold earned a postdoctoral fellow from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University while working with Professor Stephen Hawking on research in cosmology, quantum field theory in “curved spacetime” and quantum theories of gravitation. Prior to Cambridge, Myhrvold earned a doctorate in theoretical and mathematical physics and a master's degree in mathematical economics from Princeton University. He also holds a master's degree in geophysics and space physics and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of California at Los Angeles. Myhrvold serves as an affiliate research associate of paleontology at both the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, and at The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana where he funds and participates in paleontological research and yearly expeditions. Myhrvold is a member of United Way’s Million Dollar Roundtable and a regular contributor to local Seattle arts and education non-profits. In 2000, he partnered with Paul Allen and pledged $1 million to the SETI Foundation to fund the development phase of the world’s most powerful telescope – the Allen Telescope Array.