Dr. Travis Dirks
Visionary Technology Executive | Chief Technology Officer | Chief Science Officer
Expertise: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Quantum Computing, Drug Discovery, Advanced Medicine, Nanotechnology, Technologies that Change Perceptions |
bIO
Dr. Travis Dirks is CTO at Ribo, an AI-powered biotech finding new biology to unleash the next wave of highly effective drugs. Based on his groundbreaking RNA + AI technology, Ribo has generated a pipeline of drug repurposing opportunities, lead molecules and novel targets across 11 indications in oncology. Ribo spun out of XLabs, which Travis co-founded. He’s now the CTO, building moonshots powered by artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Prior to XLabs, Travis was Chief Science Officer & cofounder of Seldn, an AI that could accurately predict rare global socio-economic disruptions. Travis led the team at Seldn to predict ‘black swans’ such as labor strikes in 12 countries, massive jumps in 30+ commodities & currencies, and societal riots four months before they happened, with 95% accuracy. Prior to Seldn, Travis co-founded and led Rotary Gallop – a machine learning fintech firm that applied game theory to corporate control (for M&A, hostile takeover, and activist situations).
Travis's analyses and quotes have been featured heavily in popular media, including the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. He has pioneered several AI algorithms as well as new approaches to engineering moonshots and novel breakthroughs. Travis received his PhD in Physics & Nanotechnology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the world’s leading institution for condensed matter physics, and holds a B.S in physics from Purdue University. His PhD thesis lays the foundation for engineering next-gen nanotube based transistors for computers by increasing conductance by 1000x and creation of rare theorized low dimensional electron states.
Prior to XLabs, Travis was Chief Science Officer & cofounder of Seldn, an AI that could accurately predict rare global socio-economic disruptions. Travis led the team at Seldn to predict ‘black swans’ such as labor strikes in 12 countries, massive jumps in 30+ commodities & currencies, and societal riots four months before they happened, with 95% accuracy. Prior to Seldn, Travis co-founded and led Rotary Gallop – a machine learning fintech firm that applied game theory to corporate control (for M&A, hostile takeover, and activist situations).
Travis's analyses and quotes have been featured heavily in popular media, including the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. He has pioneered several AI algorithms as well as new approaches to engineering moonshots and novel breakthroughs. Travis received his PhD in Physics & Nanotechnology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the world’s leading institution for condensed matter physics, and holds a B.S in physics from Purdue University. His PhD thesis lays the foundation for engineering next-gen nanotube based transistors for computers by increasing conductance by 1000x and creation of rare theorized low dimensional electron states.
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Select TalksMoonshot Workshop
AI Summit — Sept 2019, San Francisco, CA The Future of AI: A Fireside Chat Debate Artificial Intelligence Unlocked, Executive Education at Berkeley Law, University of Berkeley — Sept 2019, Berkeley, CA. Battling the Impossible - How to Think Bigger and Practically Pursue Moonshots Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics UCSF — June 2019, San Francisco CA How to AI - AI Project Leadership for Non Technical Leaders Salesforce Tower - April 2019 San Francisco CA XLabs Moonshot Workshop Haas School of Business - Dec 2019 Berkeley CA Mental Models and Building Genius Private Silicon Valley Retreat - Palo Alto CA |
Achievements: 6 Impossible things
Dr. Travis Dirks has uncovered new heights across fields using his expertise to deeply research a topic and make uncommon connections, a method he has termed mental model arbitrage. E.g., He has
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Select Talks and Workshops
Moonshots: Battling The Impossible
Battling The Impossible is a story about Moonshots — highly ambitious endeavors that change the world’s perceptions of what is possible, such as, solving cancer, eliminating human disease or going to Mars. In this powerful and engaging talk, Dr. Travis Dirks uncovers the unexpected connections between dancing pigeons, Artificial Intelligence, simulated life and Charlie Munger’s concept of mental models to discuss how moonshots require both a completely different mindset and methodology. He discusses why the world chronically underinvests in them, how funding and management best practices actively slow them down, and how to optimally pursue them. Audience members will walk away with 3 powerful and immediately applicable concepts required for tackling grand challenges. They will also leave with a visceral feeling for why and how to rethink modern management practices, which while being great for productivity, kill creativity.
Clients often pair this talk with the workshops Managing for Breakthrough or Living for Breakthrough, which teach participants how to apply the concepts from the talk as a company and/or as an individual respectively.
Keynote
Clients often pair this talk with the workshops Managing for Breakthrough or Living for Breakthrough, which teach participants how to apply the concepts from the talk as a company and/or as an individual respectively.
Keynote
Battling The Impossible – Managing for Breakthrough
Modern management best practices unintentionally, but actively, destroy innovative ability. The leader in accepting this truth is the Pharma industry, which now spends over $200Billion annually on acquisition of new drugs. In this workshop, participants come to understand why this is so, and that the situation is not inevitable. Participants will come to understand and deeply integrate XLabs’ exponential methodologies, including the Moonshot Maze. They will actively explore application of the three principles for navigating the Moonshot Maze to their organizations.
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Battling The Impossible – living for Breakthrough
In this workshop, Dr. Travis Dirks brings to life the creativity principles which are deeply rooted in XLabs’ and are common to other massive innovation giants like Parc and Bell Labs. Creativity in the workplace has been massively misunderstood. In this workshop, participants will learn the difference between creative work and productive work, and exactly how creative work must be structured differently. Participants will also learn how to get the most out of themselves personally based on their own mental makeup. Finally creation is mentally and emotionally taxing. Participants will learn why along with strategies for managing these difficulties to allow them to tackle bigger better things.
Workshop |