Background
Wolfram"s father Hugo was a textile manufacturer and novelist (Into a Neutral Country) and his mother Sybil was a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford.
Wolfram"s father Hugo was a textile manufacturer and novelist (Into a Neutral Country) and his mother Sybil was a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford.
Born in Oxford, England, in 1970, Wolfram was educated at Dragon School, Eton College and Pembroke College, Cambridge, from which he holds an Master of Arts degree in Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
He is the younger brother of Stephen Wolfram. He learned to program on a British Broadcasting Corporation Micro. Wolfram has been a prominent proponent of "Computer-Based Mathematics"- a reform of mathematics education to make greater use of information technology.
The United Kingdom"s Channel 4 News quotes him saying "There are a few cases where it is important to do calculations by hand, but these are small fractions of cases.
The rest of the time you should assume that students should use a computer just like everyone does in the real world.". In an interview with the Guardian he described the replacement of hand calculation by computer use as "democratising expertise".
In 2009, he spoke about education reform at the TEDx Conference at the European Union Parliament. and again at TED Global 2010 where he argued that "Maths should be more practical and more conceptual, but less mechanical," and that "Calculating is the machinery of math – a means to an education"
He serves on the Computer science committee Advisory Board at King"s College London. Conrad Wolfram is also part of Flooved advisory Board.
In 2012, The Observer placed him at number 11 in its list of Britain"s 50 New Radicals.
In August 2012, he was a member of the judging panel at the Festival of Code, the culmination of Young Rewired State 2012.