Sir Demis Hassabis named in the Time100 Most Influential list

Photograph by David Vintiner for TIME

Demis, who is the Co-founder and CEO of Google Deepmind, has been increasingly recognised for his remarkable achievements. In 2024, he was recognised in the King’s honours list and awarded a Nobel Prize for his ground-breaking work in developing an AI model. And now, to continue his incredible list of notable achievements, Time has named him one of the 100 most influential people of 2025.

In a post on social media, Demis said that he was “Honoured to be on the #TIME100 list and cover”

Queens’ President Mohamed El-Erian also shared the news on his social platforms:

“So well deserved. Huge congratulations to Demis. Really wonderful. In addition to everything he does for so many, we are proud that he is an alumnus and Honorary Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge.”

Sir Demis Hassabis with Queens’ President Mohamed El-Erian.

Last month, Demis visited Queens’ to take part in our Fireside Chat series, hosted by Mohamed El-Erian. It was a great opportunity for students, alumni, and friends of the College to be part of an intimate conversation with Demis. During the talk, he discussed his thoughts on the importance of university and how it helped his journey to create a highly successful deep tech startup company.

“The way that Silicon Valley is today, it’s a badge of honour to drop out of university or not go at all. […] I actually totally disagree with that, especially if you want to do what’s now called deep-tech startups […] You need to understand what research really is, I think a PhD is vital in actually understanding how to deal with the research discourse and to engage with that and learn from it”

Congratulations, Demis, on a well-deserved recognition.