Happy Birthday Sergey Brin: You Got Us Googling Around The Clock!

We’ve all experienced how difficult it is to break a habit, especially one that has become ingrained in our lives. Who’d have imagined that two young adults in their twenties would shake up our routines and make our lives easier? On September 15, 1997, Sergey Brin and Larry Page registered Google.com. Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is an engineering-focused company, as evidenced by its breakthrough products. Today, Google has become the backbone of our digital existence, and we can’t picture a day without it.

Name: Sergey Brin
Date of Birth: August 21, 1973
Net Worth: $112.9 Billion (as of August 2021)

Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin is the Co-founder of Google and Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. Born to a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland (father) and a researcher at NASA (mother), it seems rather obvious today that Sergey Brin was destined to have a passion for technology, solving problems and building innovative products. On his 48th birthday today, we bring a few interesting yet less known facts about Sergey Brin.

1. In May 1993, Brin received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland with high honors in Mathematics and honors in Computer Science. In September 1993, Brin enrolled at Stanford University to study computer science. In August 1995, he was awarded the Master of Science.
2. Sergey Brin met Larry Page for the first time in 1995 at Stanford University. Brin had volunteered as a tour guide for the potential first-year students who had been admitted, but were still deciding whether to attend. Brin’s crew included Page, an engineering major from the University of Michigan. Initially they appeared to differ on most subjects, but after spending time together, they became intellectual soul mates and good friends.
3. In 1996, as part of a Stanford research project, Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a search engine “BackRub” (the predecessor to the Google search engine), named for its unique ability to analyze the “back links” pointing to a given website. They also developed the PageRank algorithm that later became Google’s core search algorithm, which orders sites in search results based on the number of other websites that link to them. Later, they come up with a new name Google (after Googol) and registered the domain name on September 15, 1997.
4. Brin was also responsible for GoogleX and Special Projects, divisions responsible for developing world-changing technology like driverless cars.
5. In December 2019, Sergey Brin stepped down as president of Alphabet, parent company of Google, but remains a controller shareholder and a board member.
6. In a 2000 interview with the Academy of Achievement nonprofit, Brin revealed two of his favorite books that have influenced him – “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!” by Richard P. Feynman and “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson.
7. In 2002, Brin was recognised one of the top 100 innovators under the age of 35 in the MIT Technology Review TR100. In 2004, Sergey Brin and Larry Page were elected “Fellows of the Marconi Foundation” at Columbia University after receiving the Marconi Foundation Prize, the “Highest Award in Engineering”. In 2004, Brin and Larry Page received the Golden Plate Award by the American Academy of Achievement.
8. In August 2013, Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki started living separately after Brin had an extramarital affair with Google Glass’s marketing director Amanda Rosenberg. Their divorce was finalised in June 2015. In 2018, Sergey Brin reportedly married Nicole Shanahan, a lawyer and founder of a legal-tech startup ClearAccessIP.
9. Few people know that Sergey Brin was an early investor in Tesla Motors (now known as Tesla Inc.).
10. In 2004, Sergey Brin, at the age of 31, was the youngest member of Forbes 400 richest people in the world. In November 2009, Sergey Brin and Larry Page were named the 5th most powerful people in the world by Forbes.
11. Sergey Brin was ranked 9 on the list of Forbes Billionaires 2021, with an estimated net worth of $95.6 billion.
12. Between 2000 and 2017, Brin donated $2.2 billion through his Brin Wojcicki Foundation and the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, primarily to fund Parkinson’s research and underserved populations. In 2011, Sergey Brin has contributed $500,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation which runs Wikipedia through his the Brin Wojcicki Foundation. In 2013, Sergey Brin and his then-wife, Anna Wojcicki, contributed $50 million to the Michael J. Fox Foundation as part of the Brin Wojcicki Challenge to battle Parkinson’s disease. In 2018, he contributed about $1 million to the University of Maryland for computer-science education.

Do make use of comment section to wish Sergey Brin on his birthday.

Disclaimer: The article is a part of the B’day Series where we celebrate the birthday of renowned personalities from across Industries, very frequently. The series includes Entrepreneurs, C-level Executives, innovators or renewed leaders who moved the industry with his exponential skill set and vision. The intent is to highlight the person’s achievements and touch base the little known, but interesting, part of his life. You can see the list of all earlier celebrated tech personalities, including Mark Zuckerberg, Marissa Mayer, Sean Parker, Andy Rubin, Julian Assange, by following this link or subscribe to your daily newsletter.

To make it more exciting, we suggest you make use of the comment section if you are among the ones celebrating their birthday with today’s featured personality.