Fundraising Fox

Curtis Northcutt

Founder

Founder at Cleanlab · CTO at ChipBrain

San Francisco, California, United States

FoundedCleanlab

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1,291 people in our graph share verified history with Curtis — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Will ReedunlockedCurtis: together at Handshake (2026)
×3Curtis: together at Facebook AI
×2Curtis: together at Coursera
×2Curtis: together at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

About

Curtis Northcutt is Director of AI Research at Handshake, where he leads data-centric AI research on foundation models. He previously co-founded and served as CEO of Cleanlab, whose business was acquired by Handshake AI in January 2026, and earlier developed the CAMEO cheating detection system used to validate MITx and HarvardX certificates. Northcutt holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT, advised by Isaac Chuang, and graduated as valedictorian from Vanderbilt University with a degree in mathematics and computer science.

Founder at Cleanlab

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Co-founders at Cleanlab

JMJonas Mueller
Jonas MuellerCo-founder
A
AnishathalyeCo-founder
UTUlyana Tkachenko
Ulyana TkachenkoCo-founder

CTO at ChipBrain

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ChipBrain's investors · 1

Experience

  1. HandshakeDirector, AI Researchcurrent2026 — present
  2. CleanlabCEO & Co-Founder2021 — 2026San Francisco, California, United States
  3. ChipBrainCTO & Co-Founder2020 — 2021Boston, Massachusetts, United States
  4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)PhD in Computer Science2017 — 2021Cambridge, MA
  5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)Masters in Computer Science2013 — 2017Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
  6. Oculus VRVisiting Research Scientist with Dr. Steve Lovegrove2018 — 2020Redmond, Wa
  7. Oculus VRFacebook Reality Labs, Oculus Research Intern with Dr. Richard Newcombe2018Redmond, WA
  8. Knowledge AIChief AI Scientist2019 — 2020Greater Boston
  9. GoogleGoogle AI Research Intern2019New York City Metropolitan Area
  10. AmazonAmazon Research Scientist (Alexa Machine Learning) Intern with Dr. Ming Sun2017Cambridge, MA
  11. Facebook AIFacebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) Intern with Dr. Y-Lan Boureau and Yann Lecun2016New York City Metropolitan Area
  12. Microsoft ResearchMicrosoft Research Visiting Scientist (USAID Research and Innovation Fellowship) with Dr. Bill Thies2014Bangalore, India
  13. MIT Lincoln LaboratoryNetwork Intrusion Detection and Cybersecurity Research with Joshua W. Haines2013Lexington, Massachusetts
  14. CourseraCoursera Research: Unsupervised learning for Education with Dr. Derek Bruff2013Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
  15. Vanderbilt UniversityIntelligent Learning Environments Research with Dr. Gautam Biswas2013Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
  16. Vanderbilt UniversityCyber-Physical Security (CPS) Systems and Artificial Intelligence Research, Dr. Xenofon Koutsoukos2012
  17. MicrosoftTechnical Program Manager Intern for Windows Phone, Camera and Photos Team2012Microsoft Corporation, Windows Phone Division, Redmond, WA
  18. National Science Foundation REU at University of Notre DameExperimental Research on Wireless Networking (ERWiN) NSF-Sponsored REU in Computer Science2011University of Notre Dame
  19. GE General Electric AppliancesEngineering Intern, Databases and HCI2010Appliance Park, Louisville, KY
  20. NASA Langley Research CenterNASA Inspire, Aerospace Research2009Langley, VA
  21. University of Kentucky, Dept. of Biology and PhysiologyNeurobiology Research on Glutamatergic Synaptic Transmission2008 — 2009

Skills & more

Analysis6Leadership9Matlab21Python12Java8C++7Databases2Python (Programming Language)2Algorithms63Machine Learning54Research51Computer Science22
+12 moreData AnalysisData MiningMathematicsProgrammingEngineeringArtificial IntelligenceScienceProduct ManagementArtificial Intelligence (AI)TeachingTheoretical Computer ScienceProbabilistic Models

Languages C++ · English · Java · Javascript (HTML, CSS) · LISP · MATLAB · Prolog, LaTeX, VHDL, MIPS · Python · SQL · Spanish

  • LearnLab Educational Data-mining trackCarnegie Mellon University
  • MIT Global FellowMassachusetts Institute of Technology

From Curtis's professional profile.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Curtis Northcutt?
Curtis Northcutt is Director of AI Research at Handshake, where he leads data-centric AI research on foundation models. He previously co-founded and served as CEO of Cleanlab, whose business was acquired by Handshake AI in January 2026, and earlier developed the CAMEO cheating detection system used to validate MITx and HarvardX certificates. Northcutt holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT, advised by Isaac Chuang, and graduated as valedictorian from Vanderbilt University with a degree in mathematics and computer science.
Where does Curtis Northcutt work?
Curtis Northcutt is Founder of Cleanlab and CTO at ChipBrain.
What companies did Curtis Northcutt found?
Curtis Northcutt founded Cleanlab.
Where did Curtis Northcutt go to school?
Curtis Northcutt studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Computer Science); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Master of Science - MS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science); Harvard University (Cross Registration as MIT PhD Student, Machine Learning).

Founder mafias

Massachusetts Institute of Technology mafia1,221

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

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Vanderbilt University mafia99

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

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National Science Foundation mafia38

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

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Coursera mafia34

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

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Handshake mafia15

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

+ 8 more

Same school

Shared employers