Practical geniuses of technology: Six whose advances have changed our lives
If Alan Lippman felt uncomfortable at first, no one could blame him.
There he was, this wide-eyed, brown-haired kid taking his first university course, an astronomy class that met at night.
"I remember just feeling very young and out of place for this dark campus," Lippman recalls of his first days at the University of Washington.
He was 11 at the time.
Lippman, now 36, is profoundly gifted by any measure: He graduated from Garfield High School at 11, earned a college degree three years later, and finished his Ph.D. in applied mathematics by the time he was old enough to vote.
His most well-known contribution, though, is helping transform the Internet into a three-dimensional medium — one that included sound.
Lippman, the first chief engineer of RealNetworks, is among the beautiful minds of technology, the men and women who generate the ideas upon which companies hang their commercial success.
The Seattle Times sought out examples of scientists and technologists who pushed concepts to the edges in order to illuminate the core. We looked at who they are, what they've done, the paths they followed to their achievements.
But even in a region defined by technology, none of the people profiled in these pages is a household name. Theirs is a life in perpetual pursuit of answers — one lived mostly behind the curtain.
"When we look at what really makes someone gifted, it is that ability to be an abstract thinker much, much earlier than their peers," says Marie Capurro, director of programs and services at the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, which offers academic support for gifted children. "By assimilating all that information at a much earlier age, they have a heightened sense of moral development, of how their actions will have an impact on the world."
Consider them practical geniuses.
Archie and Miriam Lippman hadn't noticed anything too unusual about their son before he was tested.
He did take apart clocks and watches, and he once tried to put a leash on a lizard and make it his pet. He was independent.
Alan Lippman began grade school at McGilvra Elementary in Seattle, but switched to Country Day School at the urging of his public-school principal.
By 10, he was a seventh-grader at Meany Middle School. He spent one year in high school before moving on to college.
Lippman had memorized the entire Greek cosmology by then. He had the ability to read things once and remember them.
"Just like it went into a storage battery," recalls his father, a retired pharmacist and a plain-spoken man. "He loved to read, read, read."
Alan Lippman had applied for early entry into the UW through a new program administered by the Robinson Center for Young Scholars. He was admitted at 11.
When Lippman began graduate school at Brown University in Providence, R.I., three years later, his parents moved there to support him.
"It was very hard because a lot of times, many think the parents are pushing the kids," Archie Lippman says. "But this was all on his own. We were keeping up with him."
Alan Lippman spent seven years in academia, letting his body catch up with his mind. He then sought to become a "real software person."
In 1995, Lippman joined a startup in Pioneer Square begun by former Microsoft executive Rob Glaser.
In August of the same year, that company, RealNetworks, broadcast the first baseball game over the Internet, the Seattle Mariners vs. the New York Yankees. For the first time, you could actually hear the crack of a bat and fans screaming when Edgar Martinez hit a home run. The Internet could be heard.
Lippman's first challenge was to simplify the mathematical algorithms for this revolutionary software so that an Internet user could click on a link and hear something — a game, a song, a news report — nearly instantaneously.
His friend Heidi Mae recalls watching Lippman on various occasions working to refine the software at his home. He'd listen to a few notes of music and go back and change the code.
"He'd do that for hours," she says. "He had that focus and concentration."
By the time Lippman left the company in 2000, its media player had become the predominant software to play audio and video via the Internet. As one of RealNetworks' earliest employees, he could cash in on stock options, so he was financially set.
Lippman took a year off. He read a lot and thought a lot about what next big problem to tackle.
He and his wife, Kimberley Osberg Lippman, founded Trusted Media Networks to find ways to turn Internet video into a true mass medium on par with radio and TV. The company recently announced its first large customer, the Web site for the A&E Television Networks.
"If you think of your television, it's not the quality of the picture, but whether you can find your show, how the up and down button works, what programming you can support, (and the) overall economics," Lippman says. "There's a lot more to it than, 'Is the picture pretty?' "
Lippman is no longer young or diminutive. He has a gentle handshake. He seems kind.
Among friends, he is known as a gourmet chef. He specializes in meats.
Although he's smart, he never makes those around him feel dumb.
His family is converting their living room into a library — to display all their books. They plan to buy more.
He's currently reading "A Short History of the English People," among other titles.
His curiosity is boundless.
He recently told his wife, for instance, that he'd like to check out boxing. He'd gone with a friend to a tournament.
"It's like reverse origami," she says. "It's like the paper continues to unfold into new shapes."
Lippman says nothing of his future, what he wants to be. There are too many choices.
"I'm still a young guy," Lippman says. "I still don't know what I want my tombstone to say. Being a good father and a good husband and a good son. Those are things that are ... important to me."
Those around him say they won't be surprised whatever he does next.
They'll simply wait, and watch him unfold.
Monica Soto Ouchi: 206-515-5632 or msoto@seattletimes.com
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