Adam Bly - World Economic Forum on Europe 2011

Adam Bly (born 1981 in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

) is a Canadian scientist and entrepreneur. He is the creator of

Seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

and used to lead data at

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

until he left in 2017. Bly joined Spotify in 2015 when Spotify acquired his company, Seed Scientific. He was a visiting senior fellow in science, technology, and society at

Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

. In 2007, he was named a

Young Global Leader Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL), is a non-profit organization. The organization was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and is managed from Geneva, Switzerland, under the supervision of the Sw ...

by the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

. He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II

Golden Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal () or the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal was a commemorative medal created in 2002 to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. The Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal was ...

Life and work

He began his career at the age of 16 as the youngest researcher at the

National Research Council of Canada The National Research Council Canada (NRC; ) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development. It is the largest federal research and development organization in Canada. Th ...

, where he spent three years studying the biochemistry of cancer, specifically the role of

cell adhesion Cell adhesion is the process by which cells interact and attach to neighbouring cells through specialised molecules of the cell surface. This process can occur either through direct contact between cell surfaces such as Cell_junction, cell junc ...

in metastasis. Out of the lab, without completing a university education, he founded ''

'' – tag-lined "Science is Culture" – and served as its editor-in-chief. "The best comparison for Seed," wrote a media critic at the time of the magazine's launch in 2001, "is the early years of Rolling Stone, when music was less a subject than a lens for viewing culture." Under his leadership, the magazine earned critical acclaim for modernizing scientific publishing and for bridging long-standing divides between science and society – from art and design to politics and religion. Together with

Paola Antonelli Paola Antonelli (born 1963) is an Italian architect, curator, author, editor, and educator. Antonelli is the Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, where she also serves as the founding Director o ...

he co-founded a monthly gathering of scientists, architects, and designers that laid the foundation fo
Design and the Elastic Mind
an exhibition about science and design at

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...

. He is the editor of ''Science is Culture: Conversations at the New Intersection of Science + Society'' (published by HarperCollins) and the creator of the data visualization platform Visualizing.org. He has lectured around the world on the future of science and its role in society, including at the World Economic Forum, the

National Academies of Science The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

, the State Department,

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, before the

National Science Board The National Science Board (NSB) of the United States establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation (NSF) within the framework of applicable national policies set forth by the President of the United States, president and the United ...

and the U.S. House of Representatives, and at universities including Harvard, MIT, and Beijing. He has served on the nominating committees and juries of the

Buckminster Fuller Challenge The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is an annual international design competition that awards $100,000 to the most comprehensive solution to a pressing global problem. The Challenge was launched in 2007 and is a program oThe Buckminster Fuller Instit ...

, the Earth Award, and the TED Prize, and sits on the Science Advisory Committee of the World Economic Forum, the External Advisory Board of the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

's Risk Science Center, the American Committee of the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...

, the Communications Advisory Board of the National Academy of Sciences, and as an advisor to

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

's Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Societies. He was named vice chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Design Innovation and partner to the Executive Coordination Office for the

Rio+20 Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. His achievements were highlighted by then-Canadian Prime Minister

Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a retired Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. He served as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, leader of t ...

, "for showing people the scope and power of science not just as an object of study but as a key to understanding the world around us."

References

External links

Video interview at Big ThinkGaining understanding from data visualizationGuardian talkMaking Open Science RealAbout Seed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bly, Adam 1981 births Living people American magazine editors Canadian media executives Canadian magazine editors Scientists from Montreal