Profession: Software Developer
Birthplace: New York
Position: Independent Developer of Stuffit
In 1987 Raymond Lau set the data compression standard by which the Macintosh community still adheres. He wrote a little program called Stuffit that caught fire in a disk-space hungry market. He was only 16-years-old.
That year he sold the software to Aladdin Systems and is still using the profit to put himself through MIT where he currently pursues a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science. He focuses his researche on voice recognition, but he admits to an obsession with all information. You won’t find him on Jeopardy. He’ll be reading up on the mounds of periodicals and news clipping services to which he subscribes.
“Information is the revolution,” says Lau, “especially when applied. It’s what we do with it that works miracles.” Lau’s parent were born in China and immigrated to New York soon before having their prodigal son.
