# Alexander Lavin

> Alexander Lavin is an AI researcher and former rocket scientist who founded Pasteur Labs and the Institute for Simulation Intelligence (ISI) in New York. He is building what he calls 'the IDE for reality' - simulation engines fused with AI that let scientists and engineers run experiments in software before touching the physical world. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and lead author of the landmark 'Simulation Intelligence' paper, Lavin's path runs from lunar rovers and Blue Origin rocket structures through Numenta, Vicarious, and a probabilistic-medicine startup acquired by Johnson & Johnson, to a focused-research mission aimed at Nobel-Turing breakthroughs in energy, climate, and fusion.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Pasteur Labs & Institute for Simulation Intelligence
- **Organizations:** Pasteur Labs, Institute for Simulation Intelligence (ISI), NASA Frontier Development Lab, Latent Sciences (founder, acquired by J&J), Vicarious AI, Numenta, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Astrobotic, Blue Origin
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, MS, Computational Mechanics & Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University, MEng, Engineering Management, Duke University
- **Known for:** Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science (2016), Patrick J. McGovern Tech for Humanity Prize, Lead author of the widely cited 'Simulation Intelligence' paper with 23 co-authors including David Krakauer and Hector Zenil

## Career timeline

- **2012-2014** — MS at Carnegie Mellon; led lunar rover student teams for the Google Lunar X-Prize; master's thesis on spacecraft structure optimization in partnership with Blue Origin
- **2014-2016** — Senior Software & Research Engineer at Numenta, working on anomaly detection and NLP
- **2016-2018** — Senior Research Engineer at Vicarious AI, pursuing AGI architectures in robotics and vision
- **2016** — Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science
- **2018** — Founded Latent Sciences, a probabilistic programming platform for neurodegenerative disease modeling (later acquired by Johnson & Johnson)
- **2019** — AI Advisor at NASA Frontier Development Lab; technical lead for Digital Twin Earth
- **2021** — Lead author of 'Simulation Intelligence: Towards a New Generation of Scientific Methods' (arXiv:2112.03235)
- **2021-present** — Founder & CEO of Pasteur Labs and the Institute for Simulation Intelligence
- **2023** — Raised seed funding (reported ~$10.5M round; ~$12.8M total)
- **2024** — Lectured on differentiable physics at Stanford; advised NASA FDL-X Heliolab on geomagnetic storm forecasting; Pasteur Labs acquired FOSAI

## Achievements

- Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science (2016)
- Patrick J. McGovern Tech for Humanity Prize
- Lead author of the widely cited 'Simulation Intelligence' paper with 23 co-authors including David Krakauer and Hector Zenil
- Founded and sold Latent Sciences (acquired by Johnson & Johnson)
- Technical lead for NASA's Digital Twin Earth initiative
- Built Pasteur Labs into a deep-tech lab serving industrial R&D and energy security

## Latest updates

- **2024-12** — Delivered an invited lecture on 'Differentiable Physics: A Programmer's Perspective' at Stanford's machine programming graduate course.
- **2024-10** — Presented on differentiable physics in digital engineering at the CDFAM Computational Design Symposium in NYC and joined a keynote panel on AI reliability in CFD simulation.
- **2024-09** — Advised NASA FDL-X Heliolab on geomagnetic storm forecasting alongside Google Cloud and Nvidia.

## Links

- Website: https://lavin.io
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-lavin
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/AlexLavin_C137
- GitHub: https://github.com/BoltzmannBrain

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/alexander-lavin
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-25