Mary Lou Jepsen facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mary Lou Jepsen
Jepsen in 2022
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Brown University
Occupation	Technology Pioneer
Known for	Co-founder, One Laptop Per Child

Mary Lou Jepsen is a super smart inventor and leader in the world of technology. She has helped create amazing things like new types of screens, cameras, and computer hardware.

She was a co-founder and the first chief technology officer (CTO) of One Laptop per Child (OLPC). This project aimed to give affordable laptops to kids around the world. Later, she started her own company called Pixel Qi in Taiwan, which focused on making special computer screens.

Mary Lou also led big, ambitious projects at Google X, which is Google's secret lab for futuristic ideas. She also worked as an executive at Facebook / Oculus VR, helping to make virtual reality even better.

Her inventions have been used in many devices you might know, like head-mounted displays (think VR headsets), HDTVs, laptop computers, and projectors. She also helped make computers cheaper and developed cool new ways to take pictures, even for medical uses. In 2008, Time magazine called her one of the top 100 most influential scientists. CNN also named her one of their "10 thinkers" in 2013 for her screen innovations.

In 2016, Jepsen started OpenWater. This company is working on a new way to see inside the body using special light, similar to an fMRI scan, but much smaller and cheaper.

Early Life and Education

Mary Lou Jepsen studied both art and electrical engineering at Brown University. She then earned a Master of Science degree in Holography from the MIT Media Lab. After that, she went back to Brown University to get her Ph.D. in Optical Sciences, which is about how light works.

Her Amazing Career

Mary Lou's Ph.D. research involved creating special large-scale screens that could show holograms.

She has made some of the biggest displays ever seen. In Cologne, Germany, she built a holographic copy of old city buildings. She even showed it was possible to project TV images onto the Moon's surface! (But everyone agreed it wasn't a good idea culturally).

From 2003 to 2004, she was the chief technology officer for the Display Division at Intel, a big computer chip company.

MIT Media Lab and OLPC

In 2005, Jepsen became a professor at the MIT Media Lab. There, she started a group focused on portable displays. In 1989, she helped create the world's first holographic video system. This system could create holograms that moved like video, and it won many awards.

At the same time, she teamed up with Nicholas Negroponte to co-found One Laptop per Child (OLPC). Their goal was to create a $100 laptop that used very little power. By 2013, millions of these laptops had been sent to children in over 50 countries, helping them learn. For the first year of OLPC (2005), Mary Lou was the only employee! She designed the first laptop and got big companies to make the XO-1. She also invented the laptop's special screen that could be read in sunlight and helped create its super low-power system.

Starting Pixel Qi

In 2008, Jepsen started her own company called Pixel Qi. She wanted to use the screen technologies she invented at OLPC for other products. Pixel Qi focused on making high-performance, low-power screens that could be seen clearly even in bright sunlight. These screens were designed for mobile devices like tablets and phones. The company's big dream was to make devices that almost never needed charging by using very little power and new battery ideas. Pixel Qi screens were used in many products, greatly reducing how much power the screen used.

Google X and Virtual Reality

Mary Lou Jepsen joined Google X in 2013. She advised on display and electronics projects across Google. She worked on ideas like "Google Lego TV," which were displays made of smaller screens that could connect like Lego bricks to create huge, seamless images. These could be used for big TVs, video calls, gaming, and even virtual reality without needing to wear a headset. She also contributed to Google's "Solve for X" projects with her idea of "Imaging the Mind's Eye."

In 2015, she moved to Facebook to work as an executive on their virtual reality projects.

Founding Openwater

In 2016, she left Facebook and started Openwater. This company aims to use special infrared light to create fMRI-like images inside the body. The goal is to make this technology affordable, like regular electronics, and even wearable. She gave a TED Talk in 2018 about Openwater's technology. She also discussed how this tech could lead to advancements in telepathy, allowing people to share thoughts and feelings electronically.

In 2020, Mary Lou mentioned that Openwater was actively making early versions of their devices. They planned to start hospital studies on humans to detect strokes by the end of 2020. While the final devices were initially expected in 2021, this was updated to 2024. In January 2024, Dr. Jepsen announced that Openwater had raised $54 million to create an open-source platform. This platform aims to help other organizations lower the cost of treating diseases.

Awards and Recognitions

Mary Lou Jepsen has received many honors for her work:

• Named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
• Received an honorary doctorate from Athabasca University in Canada in 2008.
• Named one of CNN's top 10 thinkers in 2013 for her work on brain imaging.
• Received an honorary Doctorate of Science from Brown University in 2014.
• Awarded the Edwin H. Land Medal from the Optical Society (OSA).
• Became a Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA).
• Recognized as one of the top 50 female computer scientists of all time by the Anita Borg Institute.
• Received top alumni awards from Brown University: the Horace Mann Medal and the BEAM award.
• Won the ABIE Award for Innovation from the Anita Borg Institute in 2011.
• Listed among Forbes' America's Top 50 Women In Tech in 2018.
• Named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2019.

She has also received many other awards for her work with One Laptop per Child and has been featured on "top" lists by magazines like Fast Company, New York Times, and IEEE Spectrum.

Personal Life

Mary Lou Jepsen is married to John Patrick Conor Ryan. She manages a health condition that requires daily medication, which she has openly discussed in the New York Times.

See also

In Spanish: Mary Lou Jepsen para niños