Speakers

Michael Chorost, PhD
Author, Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human

Dr. Michael Chorost was born with severe hearing loss due to an epidemic of rubella. He didn't learn to talk until he got hearing aids at age 3½. Those enabled him to grow up speaking English more or less normally, and he got a B.A. in English from Brown and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation was on how online environments are transforming classroom teaching. As a basis for his research, he created an online "collaboratory" in ColdFusion and used it in his English classes for four years. In 1998, this application won First Prize in the university's annual contest for innovative educational software.

On July 7, 2001 he lost the remaining hearing in his one usable ear and got a cochlear implant shortly afterward. This experience was chronicled in his book, Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human (Houghton Mifflin, 2005). It has garnered over 20 strong reviews from publications such as the L.A. Times, the Times of London, the Village Voice, the Chronicle for Higher Education, and Business Week. It was named as an Editor's Choice in Reader's Digest's August 2005 issue. It won the PEN/USA Book Award for Creative Nonfiction in 2006, and has been optioned for the screen. It has also been published in the UK and translated into Japanese.

Dr. Chorost has been interviewed by numerous periodicals including The New York Times, The Economist, The Independent, SonntagZeitung, and U.S. News & World Report, and has been a guest on National Public Radio shows including the Leonard Lopate Show, Michael Krasny's Forum, and Weekend Edition. He has given numerous book readings around the country, and has spoken at Brown University, Duke University, the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, the Conference for World Affairs, the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disorders, the Institute for the Future, and Google. He has also appeared on the television shows BBC Breakfast TV, CBS Marketwatch, Eyewitness News, and C-SPAN's BookTV. On a tour of the U.K. in spring 2006 he spoke on numerous BBC radio shows including Radio Leiceister, Radio Birmingham, and Radio 5's Up at Night .