Larry Brilliant

Brilliant was born in Detroit, Michigan. His father, Joe Brilliant, was a philanthropist and entrepreneur. He is the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, whose surname was originally Brilladentov.{{cite web| date = 21 October 2016| url = https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-multi-talented-larry-brilliant-just-added-one-more-skill-author/| title = The multi-talented Larry Brilliant just added one more skill — author| publisher = The Times of Israel| accessdate = 2020-05-12| author = Klug, Lisa}} Brilliant received his undergraduate training as well as his MPH degree (Masters in Public Health) from the University of Michigan, where he worked on the staff of the Gargoyle Humor Magazine, and his M.D. from Wayne State University School of Medicine. He moved to California for his internship at the California Pacific Medical Center, and developed parathyroid cancer from which he recovered. Brilliant is board certified in preventive medicine and public health.

File:Larry Brilliant at Spotlight Health Aspen Ideas Festival 2015 - 1.JPG

In 1969, a group of American Indians from many different tribes, calling themselves Indians of All Tribes, occupied the Alcatraz island in San Francisco. A call went out for doctors to help a pregnant woman there give birth and Brilliant joined their occupation as unofficial doctor. The Indians on Alcatraz named the baby "Wovoka" after a Northern Paiute medicine man.{{cite web| date = 24 February 2006| url = http://www.mindfully.org/Technology/2006/Larry-Brilliant-Technology24feb06.htm| title = Larry Brilliant: Doctor Looks to Use Technology to Aid Global Health Care| publisher = Wall Street Journal| accessdate = 2007-07-26| author = Hoge, Patrick| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071101072602/http://www.mindfully.org/Technology/2006/Larry-Brilliant-Technology24feb06.htm| archive-date = 1 November 2007}} After the US government forced the Indians of All Tribes off Alcatraz, Brilliant became a media darling which led to a movie company casting him in Medicine Ball Caravan, playing a doctor in a film about a tribe of hippies who follow the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, and Joni Mitchell.{{cite web| year = 2000| url = http://www.fastcompany.com/online/39/brilliant.html| title = Dr. Brilliant Vs. the Devil of Ambition| publisher = fastcompany.com| accessdate = 2007-07-26| last = Harriet Rubin| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927231816/http://www.fastcompany.com/online/39/brilliant.html| archive-date = 2007-09-27}} The cast was paid with airline tickets to India. Brilliant and some others cashed their tickets in and rented a bus to drive around Europe, which then turned into a relief convoy to help victims of the 1970 Bhola cyclone in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan).

Civil unrest stopped the relief caravan so he spent several years in India studying at a Himalayan ashram with Neem Karoli Baba (a Hindu sage) from whom he received the name Subramanyum. After about a year, Neem Karoli Baba advised Brilliant to eradicate smallpox, a project on which he would spend the next several years. He participated, as a medical officer, in the World Health Organization (WHO) smallpox eradication program{{cite web |last1=DelViscio |first1=Jeffrey |last2=Sughrue |first2=Karen M |title=Larry Brilliant Helped to Eradicate Smallpox—and He Has Advice for COVID-19 |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/larry-brilliant-helped-to-eradicate-smallpox-and-he-has-advice-for-covid-19/ |website=Scientific American |publisher=Springer Nature America, Inc. |access-date=2 May 2021}} that in 1980 certified the global eradication of smallpox.{{cite web|year=2000 |url=https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/smallpox/en/ |title=Smallpox |accessdate=2007-07-26 |publisher=WHO |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921235036/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/smallpox/en/ |archive-date=2007-09-21 }} Brilliant found that Indian officials became more receptive to his efforts when they learned of Neem Karoli Baba's involvement, to which he credits a significant portion of the program's success.Ram Dass (1995). Miracle of Love: Stories about Neem Karoli Baba. Hanuman Foundation. 4th ed., [http://hanumanfdn.org/pdfs/MoL-TheStick.pdf Chapter 9: The Stick That Heals], pp. 155–161. {{ISBN|978-1-887474-00-9}}. Brilliant contributed a seven-page account of his experiences to the book Miracle of Love: Stories of Neem Karoli Baba.

In December 1978, he became a co-founder and chairman of Seva Foundation, an international, non-profit, health foundation. Seva's projects in places like China, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Guatemala have given back sight to more than 3 million blind people through surgery, self-sufficient eye care systems, and low-cost manufacturing of intraocular lenses. One important contribution of his was his helping to set up the Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, India.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}}

When he returned to the United States, he became a professor of international health at the University of Michigan and started numerous charitable and business ventures.

In 1985, he co-founded, with Stewart Brand, The Well, a prototypic online community that has been the subject of multiple books and studies. Time said, "Well was a huge hit, a precursor of every online business from Amazon.com to eBay."{{cite web |date= April 21, 2003| url = http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1004713,00.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930092925/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1004713,00.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = September 30, 2007| title = Will You Buy WiFi?| publisher = Time| accessdate = 2007-07-26 | author=Taylor, Chris}}

He spent the first half of 2005 as a volunteer helping out in the tsunami in Sri Lanka and working in India with WHO in the campaign to eradicate polio.

On February 22, 2006, Google Inc. appointed him as the Executive Director of Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google,{{cite web |date=September 14, 2006| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/technology/14google.html?ei=5090&en=56861c8f4ca9b3e7&ex=1315886400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1185372545-ivq5NRvaEOg4wFTGfEZP9Q| title = Philanthropy Google's Way: Not the Usual |work=NY Times |accessdate = 2007-07-25 | author=Hafner, Katie}} a position which he held until April, 2009,{{cite web |date=April 14, 2009| url= http://blog.google.org/2009/04/brilliant-takes-on-urgent-threats.html| title = Brilliant Takes on Urgent Threats|accessdate = 2009-06-25 | author=Dr. Larry Brilliant}} when he joined the Skoll Foundation, as its President, the philanthropic organization established by former eBay president Jeff Skoll.{{cite news |title=Google loses Brilliant to rival foundation |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/apr/15/google-org-larry-brilliant |work=The Guardian |date=15 April 2009 }}

In July 2006, he was awarded the TED Prize, granting him $100,000 and 'One Wish to Change the World'{{cite web | author = Zetter, Kim | url = https://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70280-0.html |title = Brilliant's Wish: Disease Alerts |publisher = Wired.com | date = 2006-02-23 | accessdate = 2007-08-01}} which he presented at TED in July 2006. As his prize nominator summed up, "'Dr. Brilliant' is a name to live up to, and he has."{{cite web |date=July 2006 | url = https://www.ted.com/talks/larry_brilliant_wants_to_stop_pandemics| title = Larry Brilliant: TED Prize wish: Help stop the next pandemic| format = Streaming Video| publisher = TED (conference)| accessdate = 2007-07-25 }} His one wish that he presented at the conference was, "To build a powerful new early warning system to protect our world from some of its worst nightmares."{{cite web |date=March 23, 2006| url = http://giussani.typepad.com/loip/2006/03/can_the_interne.html| title = Larry Brilliant: Can the Internet help stop pandemics?| publisher = LunchoverIP| accessdate = 2007-07-25 | last=Bruno Giussani }}

Following the H1N1 swine flu outbreak in 2010, Brilliant expressed concern that the public was not suitably concerned by the threat posed by infectious diseases. This led to Brilliant and several colleagues contributing to the creation of the film Contagion, released the following year in 2011.{{Cite web |last1=Brilliant |first1=Larry |last2=O'Toole |first2=Tara |last3=Smolinski |first3=Mark |last4=Faskianos |first4=Irina A. |date=2020-03-13 |title=The COVID-19 Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness in the United States |url=https://www.cfr.org/conference-calls/covid-19-epidemic-and-pandemic-preparedness-united-states |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20221225190809/https://www.cfr.org/conference-calls/covid-19-epidemic-and-pandemic-preparedness-united-states |archive-date=2022-12-25 |access-date=2022-12-25 |website=Council on Foreign Relations |language=en}}

In May 2013, he gave the commencement speech at Harvard School of Public Health,

{{quote|Imagine that arc of history that Martin Luther King inspired is right here with us. The arc of the universe needs your help to bend it towards justice. It will not happen on its own. The arc of history will not bend towards justice without you bending it. Public health needs you to ensure health for all. Seize that history. Bend that arc. I want you to leap up, to jump up and grab that arc of history with both hands, and yank it down, twist it, and bend it. Bend it towards fairness, bend it towards better health for all, bend it towards justice!{{cite web| title = " HSPH News " Commencement 2013: Larry Brilliant's address|publisher=Harvard School of Public Health| url = http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/commencement-2013-larry-brilliants-address/ |date=May 30, 2013| accessdate = 2013-11-22}}}}

In spring 2020, Brilliant commented that the World Health Organization, where he had worked for ten years, was slow to declare COVID-19 a pandemic.

Brilliant participates as an advisor to the COVID-19 Technology Task Force, a technology industry coalition founded in March 2020 collaborating on solutions to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.{{Cite web |last=Jacox |first=Madi |title=Leadership |url=https://www.crttf.org/leadership/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224202657/https://www.crttf.org/leadership/ |archive-date=2022-12-24 |access-date=2022-12-25 |website=COVID-19 Technology Task Force |date=12 February 2021 |language=en-US}}

Brilliant is married to Girija (formerly Elaine) and has three children: Joe, Jon, and Iris Brilliant. Girija holds a PhD in public health administration and is an equal partner in many of her husband's enterprises. Co-founder of Seva Foundation,{{Cite web|url=http://www.seva.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_history|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106192001/http://www.seva.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_history|url-status = dead|title=Seva Foundation: History|archive-date=January 6, 2014}} she was instrumental in the World Health Organization's smallpox eradication program.

Brilliant was a close friend of Steve Jobs and visited him often during the last year of his life.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/the-steve-jobs-nobody-knew-71168/ |title=The Steve Jobs Nobody Knew|magazine=Rolling Stone |date=27 October 2011}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{commons category|Larry Brilliant}}

• [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00fvly5 Are Social Entrepreneurs Heroes?] Larry Brilliant on [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004kln9 BBC The Forum]
• {{Twitter}}
• [http://www.seva.org/ Seva Foundation (Co-Founder)]
• [http://www.skollfoundation.org/staff/larry-brilliant/ Larry Brilliant, President, Skoll Global Threats Fund, Profile] at Skoll Foundation
• {{TED speaker}}
• {{TED talk|larry_brilliant_wants_to_stop_pandemics|TED Prize Wish: Larry Brilliant wants to stop pandemics}} (TED2006)
• {{TED talk|larry_brilliant_makes_the_case_for_optimism|Larry Brilliant makes the case for optimism}} (Skoll World Forum 2007)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brilliant, Larry}}

Category:1944 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American businesspeople

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:20th-century American philanthropists

Category:21st-century American businesspeople

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:American epidemiologists

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:American officials of the United Nations

Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent

Category:American public health doctors

Category:Google employees

Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers

Category:Physicians from Detroit

Category:University of Michigan faculty

Category:University of Michigan School of Public Health alumni

Category:Wayne State University School of Medicine alumni

Category:World Health Organization officials