Curtis Carlson
Photo: SRI International, cropped by User:Disavian, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons10

Curtis Carlson

American research scientist (b. 1945)

Curtis Raymond Carlson (born May 22, 1945) was president and CEO of SRI International from 1998 to 2014.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Curtis Carlson (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born May 22, 1945.1

About

As of 2020, Carlson is a professor of practice at Northeastern University, where he is further developing value creation methodology, called Carlson-Polizzotto Method, along with his colleague Len Polizzotto.

From Wikipedia’s article on Curtis Carlson, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedWorcester Polytechnic Institute3
  • Date not recordedRutgers University3

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.

From Wikipedia’s article on Curtis Carlson (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: scientist.6

Sarnoff Corporation

Starting in 1973, 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 started the 1997 team that developed the HDTV program that became the US standard. He also started the 2000 team that designed a system to assess broadcast image quality. Both of these teams were awarded a Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for their accomplishments.

SRI International

He served as the president of SRI International from 1998 to 2014, and oversaw Sarnoff Corporation's full integration into SRI in January 2011. During that period he was Chairman of the Sarnoff Corporation.

Carlson is known for "Carlson's Law", coined by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to describe Carlson's balance between autocracy and democracy in an organization: "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."

From Wikipedia’s article on Curtis Carlson (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • BornMay 22, 1945, Providence7
  • CitizenshipUnited States8

Sources

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