Luis von Ahn
Luis von Ahn
Luis von Ahn (born August 19, 1978) is a Guatemalan-American entrepreneur, computer scientist, and founder of Duolingo, an online language learning platform. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Captcha, a company that develops technology to prevent bots from accessing websites and online services.
Von Ahn was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and raised in a bilingual Spanish-German household. He attended the University of San Carlos of Guatemala, where he studied mathematics and computer science. In 2000, he moved to the United States to pursue a graduate degree in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.
After completing his PhD, von Ahn worked as a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2005, he co-founded reCAPTCHA, a company that developed a new type of Captcha that was more difficult for bots to solve. reCAPTCHA was acquired by Google in 2009.
In 2009, von Ahn founded Duolingo, an online language learning platform. Duolingo offers courses in over 30 languages, and has over 300 million active users. The company has been praised for its innovative approach to language learning, and has won numerous awards, including the 2013 TIME 100.
Von Ahn is a vocal advocate for education reform and access to technology for all. He has spoken at TED conferences and World Economic Forums, and has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.
Awards and honors
- 2013: TIME 100
- 2014: Ernst & Young US LLP's "Entrepreneur of the Year" award in the Philadelphia Region
- 2016: Presidential Medal of Freedom
Personal life
Von Ahn is married to Daphne Koller, a computer scientist and co-founder of the online education platform Coursera. They have one daughter.
