Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin (born August 21, 1973) is a Russian American computer scientist and industrialist who, along with Larry Page, is best known as the co-founder of Google, Inc., the world’s largest Internet company , based on its search engine and online advertising technology. Together with Page, they are often referred to as the "Google Guys". According to Forbes he and Larry Page are currently tied as the 24th richest person in the world with a personal wealth of US$17.5 billion in 2010.
Brin immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union at the age of six. Earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, he followed in his father's and grandfather's footsteps by studying mathematics, double-majoring in computer science. After graduation, he moved to Stanford to acquire a Ph.D in computer science. There he met Larry Page, whom he quickly befriended. They crammed their dormitory room with inexpensive computers and applied Brin’s data mining system to build a superior search engine. The program became popular at Stanford and they suspended their Ph.D studies to start up Google in a rented garage.
The Economist magazine referred to Brin as an "Enlightenment Man", and someone who believes that "knowledge is always good, and certainly always better than ignorance", a philosophy that is summed up by Google’s motto of making all the world’s information "universally accessible and useful" and "Don't be evil".
