Today Moran Cerf is a scientist, studying the way the human brain creates and processes ideas and thoughts. But back in his home country of Israel, Moran was a hacker. He was the good kind of hacker, breaking into computer systems with permission to test their security. One time his company was doing work for the Israeli government, hacking into the social services database. To demonstrate how easily the data could be altered, one of his colleagues changed Moran’s status from ALIVE to DEAD. As far as the government was concerned he was now deceased, and there was no way to change it back.
Moran Cerf is a professor of neuroscience and business at the Kellogg School of Management and the neuroscience program at Northwestern University. He’s been hacker, furniture-designer, pilot, radio host, and filmmaker. Currently he’s the Alfred P. Sloan professor at the American Film Institute, and is a multiple-time Moth GrandSlam storytelling champion.
Moran Cerf
Courtesy of Moran Cerf