Luis von Ahn
Luis von Ahn is a Guatemalan-American computer scientist and professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He co-created CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA, and is the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, the world's most popular language-learning platform.
Luis von Ahn's Bio
Luis von Ahn is a Guatemalan-American computer scientist and professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He co-created CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA, and is the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, the world's most popular language-learning platform.
Born in Guatemala City in 1979, von Ahn earned his B.S. from Duke University in 2000 and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005. His pioneering work in human computation has made him a leading figure in computer science, earning him a MacArthur Fellowship and induction into the National Academy of Engineering.
In 2003, von Ahn co-created CAPTCHA as a graduate student, revolutionizing web security. He then co-founded reCAPTCHA in 2007, which Google acquired in 2009. In 2011, he co-founded Duolingo with Severin Hacker, leading it to become the world's most popular language-learning platform. Duolingo went public on NASDAQ in July 2021.
Von Ahn has been recognized as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people and continues to advocate for accessible education and ethical technology design.
Career Timeline
2000 — B.S. from Duke University
Earned Bachelor of Science degree from Duke University
2005 — Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University
Earned Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University
2007 — Co-created CAPTCHA
Co-created CAPTCHA with Luis von Ahn, a test to tell humans and computers apart
2009 — Co-created reCAPTCHA
Co-created reCAPTCHA, which uses CAPTCHAs to help digitize books
2011 — Co-founded Duolingo
Co-founded Duolingo, a language-learning platform
2021 — Duolingo IPO
Led Duolingo through its initial public offering on NASDAQ
Books by Luis von Ahn
