Sal Khan

Salman Amin Khan (born October 11, 1976) is an American educator who founded the Khan Academy, a free online education platform and an organization with which he has produced over 6,500 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects, originally focusing on mathematics and sciences. He is also the founder of Khan Lab School, a brick-and-mortar school associated with Khan Academy.

As of December 2016, the Khan Academy channel on YouTube has more than 3 million subscribers and the Khan Academy videos have been viewed more than 1 billion times. In 2012, Time named Salman Khan in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Forbes magazine featured Khan on its cover with the story "$1 Trillion Opportunity".

Early life and education

Salman Khan was born in Metairie, Louisiana, United States, to a Bengali family. His father was from Barisal, Bangladesh (then a part of Bengal Province, India), and his mother was from Murshidabad, West Bengal, India. He attended the public school Grace King High School in Metairie, Louisiana, where, as he recalls, "a few classmates were fresh out of jail and others were bound for top universities." He graduated valedictorian in 1994.

Khan attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), graduating with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Course 6 (electrical engineering and computer science), and another bachelor’s degree in Course 18 (mathematics), in 1998. He was class president in his senior year.

Khan also holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Career

In 2002, Khan was a summer intern at PARC. From 2003 to late 2009, Khan worked as a hedge fund analyst at Connective Capital Management.

Khan Academy

In late 2003, Khan began tutoring his cousin, Nadia, in mathematics over the internet using Yahoo!'s Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends sought his tutoring, he moved his tutorials to YouTube where he created an account on November 16, 2006.

The popularity of his educational videos on the video-sharing website prompted Khan to quit his job as a financial analyst in late 2009. He moved his focus to developing his YouTube channel, Khan Academy, full-time with the aid of close friend Josh Gefner. Khan consequently received sponsorship from Ann Doerr, the wife of John Doerr.

His videos received worldwide interest from both students and non-students, with more than 458 million views in the first number of years.

Khan outlined his mission as to "accelerate learning for students of all ages. With this in mind, we want to share our content with whoever may find it useful." Khan plans to extend the "free school" to cover topics such as English. Khan's videos are also used to educate rural areas of Africa and Asia.

Khan published a book about Khan Academy and education goals titled The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined.

Khan Academy, initially a tool for students, added the Coach feature in 2012, promoting the connection of teachers with students through videos and monitor tools.

As of 2017, Khan Academy's videos on YouTube have been viewed over 1.2 billion times.

Recognition

• Salman Khan has been featured on The Colbert Report, PBS NewsHour, CNN, and National Public Radio. In 2009, Khan Academy received the Microsoft Tech Award for education. In September 2010, Google provided $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable Khan Academy to translate its core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages. Also near that time, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation provided Khan Academy with $1.5 million to help Khan Academy to grow as an organization.
• In March 2011, Salman Khan was invited to speak at TED by Bill Gates who says he uses Khan Academy Exercise Software to teach his own children.
• On June 2, 2011, Salman Khan appeared on The Colbert Report to talk in an interview about his teachings. He told the audience how he planned to use his software to revolutionize the field of education.
• Khan has also been interviewed by journalist Charlie Rose, appearing on Charlie Rose on May 4, 2011, and by news anchor Tom Brokaw.
• Khan appeared at Stanford Graduate School of Business on February 21, 2012.
• On April 29, 2015, Salman Khan appeared at the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the Berkeley Forum.
• Khan spoke at Bellarmine College Prep during TEDxSanJoseCA about the importance of education and the founding of Khan Academy. Khan was also the commencement speaker for Rice University's commencement exercises on May 12, 2012 as well as MIT's commencement on June 8, 2012.
• Khan appeared at the AtGoogleTalks with Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in 2012.
• Khan has been interviewed by Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson at The Aspen Institute in 2012. On August 3, 2013 Khan was interviewed by Henry Paulson at The Aspen Institute for the 20th Annual Summer Celebration.
• Khan has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), National Public Radio, CNN, and CNN Money.
• Khan was featured as a "Big Thinker" on Edutopia discussing flip teaching.
• Khan was interviewed by journalist Charlie Rose, appearing on Charlie Rose for the second time on February 26, 2013.
• On March 21, 2013, Khan was presented the 2013 Posey Leadership Award at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science by Austin College (located in Sherman, Texas). Earlier that day, at a campus convocation Khan gave a lecture to the Austin College community. Khan also visited various student groups around the campus.
• Khan spoke at the University of New Orleans in New Orleans on May 20, 2013.
• Khan was one of five individuals who recently won the 2014 Heinz Award. His award was in the area of "Human Condition."
• Beth Harris, John Green, and Hank Green are part of the Khan Academy community with him.
• Awarded Padma Shri in 2016 (India's fourth highest Civilian Award).

Personal life

Khan is married to Pakistani-American physician Umaima Marvi. The couple live with their children in Mountain View, California.

See also

• Jawed Karim
• Muhammad Yunus

References

External links

• Khan Academy (Web site) 
• Salman Khan on Charlie Rose
• Sal Khan at TED
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Past Winners of Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education