Curtis Carlson

Curtis R. Carlson
Born	1942 (age 68–69)
Nationality	American
Institutions	SRI International Sarnoff Corporation
Alma mater	Worcester Polytechnic Institute Rutgers University

Curtis R. Carlson (born 1945) is currently the president and CEO of SRI International and a prominent technologist.

Education

Carlson earned his B.S. in physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1967 and a Ph.D. in geophysical fluid dynamics from Rutgers University in 1973.

Career

After graduation, Carlson participated in research and development in the field of imaging systems, working with the RCA Sarnoff Laboratory.

In 1981, Carlson was named the Director of the Image Quality and Perception Research Group and Vice President of the laboratory in 1990. In 1995, Carlson became Executive Vice President of Sarnoff's Interactive Systems Division. He also led the team that developed the HDTV program that became the US Standard, and led another team that designed a system to assess broadcast image quality. Both of these teams were awarded an Emmy for their accomplishments. He also served on several government task forces and is a member of the Highlands Group, which makes recommendations to government officials regarding technological developments of interest to the government. He has served as the president of SRI International since 1998.^[1]

Carlson’s Law

As quoted by Thomas L. Friedman:^[2]

“In a world where so many people now have access to education and cheap tools of innovation, innovation that happens from the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart. Innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but dumb.”

As a result, says Carlson, the sweet spot for innovation today is “moving down,” closer to the people, not up, because all the people together are smarter than anyone alone and all the people now have the tools to invent and collaborate.

Books

• Visibility of displayed information (1978)
• Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want (with William Wilmot) (2006) ISBN 0-307-33669-7

References

1. ^ Carlson bio on SRI website
2. ^ Friedman, Thomas L (2011-06-05). "Advice for China". New York Times: p. WK8. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/opinion/05friedman.html. Retrieved 2011-11-18. 

External links

• One on One with Curtis Carlson, CEO of SRI International April 27, 2001
• Creatology September 11, 2006

Persondata
Name	Carlson, Curtis
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Date of birth	1945
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