17 Peter Diamandis Facts: An Innovative Person, Must Read!

One of the leading entrepreneurs and international pioneers of the 21st century, and Fortune’s top 50 leaders of the world, Peter H. Diamandis is a force to reckon with.

Born in the Bronx region of New York to Greek immigrant parents, Peter Diamandis, despite having ordinary beginnings, made himself extraordinary. From a young age, Diamandis expressed a very keen interest in space and space adventures.

Having a curious and intelligent mind, Diamandis won several rocket design and launch competitions while in school.

His passion for space exploration was so deep that at the young age of eight, he started giving lectures about the same to people in his family and his friends.

His deep interest and curiosity was perhaps the driving reason getting him a spot at the premier institutions of the world, where he was able to further explore and hone his knowledge and skills, which in turn equipped him to become the successful Founder and Chairman of the XPrize foundation that we know today.

He has also authored two books, 'The Future Is Better Than You Think' and 'Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World'. Peter Diamandis is the Vice-Chairman on Celularity, Inc.; Human Longevity Inc.; Co-Chairman of Planetary Resources; and Space Adventures and Zero-Gravity Corporation.

A noted entrepreneur, author, innovator, leader, and philanthropist, here are some Peter Diamandis facts you may not have known. After reading about the Executive Chairman of the XPrize Foundation and winner of the World Technology Award from the World Technology Counsel, also check Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky facts and Peter Jackson facts.

The Early Life Of Peter Diamandis

To begin learning about Peter Diamandis, it would only be fair to start with his early life, as an insight into his roots and childhood would give us an idea as to how he went on to achieve such amazing feats. So here are some Peter Diamandis facts related to his early life.

He was born to Greek immigrant parents in the Bronx area of New York City in 1961 and is thus of Greek-American descent. His father was a physician named Harry Diamandis, and his mother was also a doctor named Tula Diamandis. Peter as such was led into the direction of pursuing a medical business from a young age.

He attended the John L. Miller Great Neck North High School, which is located in the Great Neck village of Nassau County, situated in Long Island, New York. It is also popularly known as the Great Neck North High School.

He then went on to attend Hamilton College which is a private liberal arts college in New York too. After attending this school for a year, he moved on to study at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to pursue his education in Physics and Biology. He acquired degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Molecular Genetics from MIT.

His entrepreneurial streak began soon, when in his second year at MIT, he, along with his fellow students, became the co-founder of SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space).

Completing his Bachelor of Science Degree from MIT in Molecular Genetics in 1983, he went on to Harvard Medical School to pursue his MD. During this time, he again became a co-founder of a new foundation known as the Space Generation Foundation.

While still in Medical school, he rethought his career path and put his degree on hold to pursue Aerospace engineering and Astronautics from MIT. After completing his master's in these fields, he went back to Harvard, to finish his medical degree, becoming Dr. Peter H. Diamandis.

Books Published By Peter Diamandis

Starting in 2012, Dr. Peter H. Diamandis has authored several books too, adding another feather to his cap.

The first book he worked on was 'Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think'. He worked as a co-author for this book beside Steven Kotler. This book was a work of nonfiction, describing and introducing the concepts of exponential technology and other major emerging market forces, set to modify and better the standard of living.

His second work was also a co-authored book alongside Steven Kotler. This one is named 'Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World'. This book was more of a guide for budding entrepreneurs, educating them about exponential technology, crowdsourcing, and more.

Career Development

Peter H. Diamandis began his career while still pursuing his undergraduate degree. Starting with the co-founding of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, he later co-founded the Space Generation Foundation.

Following these two foundations, he got placed as the managing director of the International Space University while he was still in Harvard Medical School, and also became the CEO of International Micro Space (earlier named Microsat Launch Systems), which was a micro-satellite launching organization.

During his time as a master’s student at MIT, he worked with NASA as a researcher at the Johnson Space Centre. In 1983, he also founded SpaceFair, which is a national Space Conference which was hosted by MIT.

Throughout his career, Peter has been a board member at various positions in several companies including Hyperloop as well as with the educational institution Cogswell Polytechnical College, which was the first technical training school at the University of Silicon Valley, and all of the western US.

He then founded Constellation Communication in 1991 and remained director of the company till 1993. The aim of this foundation was to deploy 10 satellites to develop easier communication with Brazil and Indonesia.

The failure of International MicroSpace led Diamandis to establish the X Prize Foundation in 1994. He is the founder, CEO, and Executive Chairman of XPrize Foundation.

In order to get more youth interested in space exploration, he organized a massive event, inviting teams from around the world, at a chance to win $10 million. Without having any funding to go through with this, the money was arranged to be funded from an insurance policy, with Anousheh and Hamid Ansari as the underwriters for the same.

This competition grabbed the attention of a worldwide audience and hosted 26 teams, hailing from seven different countries.

The winner Burt Rutan designed a private passenger-carrying spacecraft named SpaceShip One. The X Prize Foundation board includes some big names like Elon Musk.

In 1994, Peter H Diamandis also co-founded the Zero Gravity Corporation, which is not famously known for letting people experience weightlessness.

In 1998, he co-founded and was the vice-chairman of Space Adventures Ltd. which was basically a Space Tourism venture, taking private client missions to the International Space Station.

Following this, he co-founded BlastOff! A corporation that was created with the aim of sending a private rover mission to the moon. This however did not last very long as the company lost funding in 2001. He then went on to another failed venture named Racing Rockets League in 2005.

In 2008, he co-founded Singularity University, where he also served as the executive chairman. Singularity University provides several different programs including the 10-week Graduate Study Program, The five-day Exponential Medicine Conference, and more.

In 2012, he went on and co-founded Planetary Resources Inc. which was to work with asteroids approaching Earth. This company faced a lot of financial turmoil, ultimately leading the human assets to be sold to a blockchain company.

However, setbacks did not stop him. In 2014, he co-founded Human Longevity Inc., which was established for extending a healthy human lifespan by working on cell therapy-based diagnostics. With this goal in mind, he also joined forces with SENS Research Foundation which is a non-profit organization, working on curing age-related diseases.

Having degrees in aeronautical engineering as well as molecular genetics, paved the way for him to venture into both the space and well as medicine business.

Personal Life Of Peter Diamandis

While not much is known about his personal life, Peter Diamandis has been making headlines during the 2021 cycle of the Covid Pandemic.

He proposed to his girlfriend Kristen Hladnick in 2004 on a Zero G. flight. They married sometime after that and have two sons together. Diamandis has described Kristen as extremely supportive during all of his ventures, including some that were much more blood sweat, and tears than others.

The 2021 controversy regarding this space legend began when he hosted a massive and majorly maskless event in February of 2021. Hosting hundreds and thousands of people, selling tickets up to $30,000; and in violation of all covid protocols, his event became a super spreader of the virus.

As if this was not enough, he went on to sell allegedly fraudulent medications to those who got infected because of his event.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Peter Diamandis facts then why not take a look at Peter Tchaikovsky facts, or Peter Jackson facts.