PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Nathan Eagle

Also known as Nathan Norfleet Eagle, Nathan N. Eagle

Nathan Eagle is an AI researcher who uses mobile-phone data to study human behavior and social systems. His doctoral work at MIT applied artificial intelligence to phone records, and later projects connected large-scale behavioral data with development and public health. He co-founded txteagle, which became Jana, and coauthored Reality Mining with Kate Greene. As of October 2026, he is Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Aerie Ventures and runs its Granted service, which uses public grant data and AI to help organizations find funding and prepare applications.

Now at
Aerie Ventures
Born
1976
Works
135
Citations
11,778
h-index
39
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1999–2005

    Stanford engineering and an MIT PhD

    He earns a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University in 1999. Between 2001 and 2005, he receives master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Management Science and Engineering at Stanford and a PhD at MIT.

  2. June 2005

    An MIT thesis on mobile data

    At MIT's Media Lab, his doctoral research applies AI to predict human behavior from mobile-phone records. In June 2005, he publishes Machine Perception and Learning of Complex Social Systems, based on eight months of phone data from 100 MIT subjects and their individual and group behavior.

  3. 2006

    Mobile programming in Nairobi

    As a research scientist at MIT and Fulbright professor at the University of Nairobi, he develops a mobile-phone programming curriculum in 2006. Twelve sub-Saharan computer-science departments adopt it, leading to hundreds of mobile applications.

  4. 2009–2010

    Mobile data and AI for development

    In June 2009, he presents Microsoft Research work on behavioral data from more than 250 million people, with planned applications in public policy, urban planning, developmental economics and computational epidemiology. In 2010, as a postdoctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, he and Eric Horvitz launch Artificial Intelligence for Development, which leads to computational models of food shortages and studies of slum dynamics.

  5. 2009–2011

    txteagle becomes Jana

    He co-founds txteagle with Benjamin Olding in 2009, a text-message service that pays mobile airtime for research and marketing microtasks. In September 2011, the company changes its name to Jana.

  6. 2011–2012

    Harvard social systems and health data

    In 2011, he joins Harvard as an adjunct assistant professor and forms the Engineering Social Systems group. In January 2012, he speaks at the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Seminar about how phone records can reveal mobility patterns linked to disease spread. He wins the Kiel Institute's 2012 Global Economy Prize as Jana's founder and chairman.

  7. 2014–2015

    The Reality Mining book

    In October 2014, he and Kate Greene publish Reality Mining: Using Big Data to Engineer a Better World, which describes estimating road traffic from Bluetooth signals and monitoring influenza with mobile-phone records. In 2015, the book receives an Honorable Mention in the PROSE Awards' Computing & Information Science category.

  8. As of October 2026

    Founder and CTO of Aerie Ventures

    As of October 2026, he is Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Aerie Ventures, whose ongoing AI projects include Granted. He runs Granted, which pairs AI with public grant data to help nonprofits, researchers and small businesses find eligible funding and prepare competitive applications.

Career

  1. NowAerie VenturesFounder and Chief Technology Officer
  2. 2012–2016Northeastern University
  3. From 2011JanaFounder and chairman
  4. 2011–2012Harvard UniversityAdjunct assistant professor
  5. 2010Santa Fe InstitutePostdoctoral fellow
  6. 2009–2011txteagleCo-founder
  7. 2006University of NairobiFulbright professor
  8. 2002–2013Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyResearch scientist

Education

  1. 2005Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPhD
  2. 2005Stanford UniversityMaster's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Management Science and Engineering
  3. 1999Stanford UniversityB.S. in Mechanical Engineering

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Reality mining: sensing complex social systems2005 · Personal and Ubiquitous Computing · 2,770 citationsWith Alex Pentland
  2. Inferring friendship network structure by using mobile phone data2009 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 1,858 citationsWith Alex Pentland
  3. Quantifying the Impact of Human Mobility on Malaria2012 · Science · 992 citations
  4. Network Diversity and Economic Development2010 · Science · 771 citations
  5. Eigenbehaviors: identifying structure in routine2009 · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · 504 citationsWith Alex Pentland

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Nathan Eagle. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  4. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Nathan Eagle yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Nathan Eagle - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Machine Perception and Learning of Complex Social Systems — MIT Media Lab media.mit.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Investigation of Complex Social Systems from Communication Data: Scaling from 102 to 108 - Microsoft Research microsoft.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Mobile tech firm TxtEagle becomes Jana | News | Research Live research-live.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Using cell phones for public health — Harvard Gazette news.harvard.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Prize Winners - Kiel Institute kielinstitut.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Reality Mining: Using Big Data to Engineer a Better World, by Nathan Eagle and Kate Greene | Times Higher Education (THE) timeshighereducation.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. 2015 Award Winners | PROSE Awards proseawards.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Overview ‹ Nathan N. Eagle — MIT Media Lab media.mit.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. About Granted | Granted AI grantedai.com. Checked 21 October 2026.