Tobias took an academic route. He obtained his master’s degree and PhD in computer science at the University of Zurich. He then was a postdoc at Yale and ETH Zurich and a guest researcher at the University of Chile and at Stanford before joining the Computer Science Department at VU Amsterdam as assistant professor. His award-winning dissertation on controlled English for knowledge representation was the starting point for many papers on the Semantic Web and wide recognition of his key contributions to nanopublications. At the same time, he was hatching more long-term ideas for how to revolutionize knowledge sharing. And at some point he realized that he could best put these ideas into practice as an entrepreneur. His perseverance and passion for semantic technologies led to the prototype of Nanodash and the vision of the knowledge space. With this he laid the foundation for our venture. Tobias' main task at Knowledge Pixels is to further develop the software and the concepts behind it.
Philipp is passionate about organizations, how they operate and develop work cultures, how they grow and evolve, and how these processes can be fostered and guided. His drive and optimism provided the initial spark for founding Knowledge Pixels. He combines a focus on building the business and managing the finances and communication with a keen interest in the technology. He has a master’s in business administration from the University of Zurich, and brings deep expertise from his previous work in a wide variety of industries. Among other positions, he was production coordinator at Condor Films, team leader at a cultural center, and management assistant at IBM. He served as customer service manager and most recently as head of finance in the start-up phase of the Swiss online magazine Republik. Philipp is fascinated by the idea of machines and humans meeting halfway, and is now working towards fundamentally improving science communication with Knowledge Pixels.