For development of groundbreaking, commercially successful handheld computers and smartphones, which established the foundation for today’s mobile computing
Jeff Hawkins is a visionary technologist and neuroscientist known for revolutionizing mobile computing. After earning a BS in electrical engineering from Cornell, he joined GRiD Systems, where he developed the GRiDPad, among the first successful tablet computers. In 1992, he founded Palm Computing, creating the PalmPilot and the Graffiti handwriting system, effectively launching the modern handheld industry. He later cofounded Handspring with Palm colleagues Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan, creating the Treo, which established the blueprint for the modern smartphone.
In 2002, Hawkins returned to an early passion for neuroscience. He founded the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience (now at UC Berkeley) and cofounded Numenta in 2005 to reverse-engineer the human neocortex. He has authored the books On Intelligence (2004) and A Thousand Brains (2021), introducing the “Thousand Brain Theory,” which proposes that the human neocortex is not a single learning system, but rather is composed of many thousands of “columns” that each build independent models of objects and concepts.
As of 2025, Hawkins leads the Thousand Brains Project, a nonprofit open-source initiative at Numenta dedicated to applying his theories to create truly intelligent AI. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.
