Dr. Jacques Vallee
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Dr. Vallee was born in France, where he received a B.S. in mathematics at the Sorbonne and an M.S. in astrophysics at Lille University. Coming to the U.S. as an astronomer at the University of Texas, where he co-developed the first computer-based map of Mars for NASA, Jacques later moved to Northwestern University where he received his Ph.D. in computer science. He went on to work on information technology research at SRI International and the Institute for the Future, where he directed the project to build the world's first network-based collaboration system as a Principal Investigator for the groupware project on Arpanet, the prototype for the Internet.


A venture capitalist since 1984, Jacques Vallee has served as an early-stage investor and director of over 60 high-technology companies, a third of which went public through acquisitions or IPOs. Apart from his work with information science and finance, Jacques has had a long-term private interest in astronomy, in writing and in the frontiers of research, notably unidentified aerial phenomena. His most recent book, The Heart of the Internet, is available free of charge on Google Books. He was awarded the Jules Verne Prize for a science fiction novel in French.