David Gruber is the Founder & President of Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), a nonprofit organization and large-scale interspecies communication effort that is applying advanced machine learning/artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art robotics to translate the voices of sperm whales. The CETI science team, consisting of over 50 scientists across eight disciplines, has made pioneering scientific advances surrounding sperm whale communication. These findings are currently being applied across species to demonstrate that technology can better connect humans to the natural world.
Gruber is an Explorer with National Geographic Society and Distinguished Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences at the City University of New York and National Geographic Explorer. Before founding CETI in 2020, his research focused on climate and coral reef science and his laboratory invented technologies, such as the “shark-eye-camera” to perceive the underwater world from the perspective of marine animals. His research team discovered over 200 new species of biofluorescent fish as well as the first observations of biofluorescence in sea turtles. His long-standing collaboration with the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory has led to the engineering of some of the most gentle robots ever created to better understand and interact with life in the ocean. Gruber holds the Lagrange Prize in complex systems science for his advancements “focused on the conservation of biodiversity, protection of resources and the safeguarding of ecosystems.”
