Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder of Duolingo and Creator of reCAPTCHA
Luis von Ahn co-founded Duolingo with Severin Hacker, one of his doctoral students, in August 2011 and has served as chief executive officer and a board member since then. He also chairs the board of the Pittsburgh-based language learning company.
| Role | Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Board Chairman |
|---|---|
| Company | Duolingo |
| Headquarters | Pittsburgh, United States |
| Industry | Education |
| In role since | 2011 |
| Born | 1978, Guatemala City, Guatemala |
| Education | BS in Mathematics, Duke University; MS and PhD in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University |
| Company website | duolingo.com |
From Carnegie Mellon Research on Human Computation to Duolingo
Von Ahn was born in Guatemala City in 1978. His academic work focused on what he called human computation, the subject of his doctoral dissertation, which led to CAPTCHA, the ESP Game and reCAPTCHA.
- 2000: earned a BS in mathematics at Duke University and co-created CAPTCHA with Manuel Blum
- 2003 and 2005: earned an MS and a PhD in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University
- 2005 to 2006: postdoctoral fellow, Carnegie Mellon University
- 2006 to 2011: assistant professor, Carnegie Mellon University
- Until 2009: chief executive officer of reCAPTCHA, which Google acquired in 2009
- 2011: co-founded Duolingo with Severin Hacker
- 2011 to 2012: associate professor, Carnegie Mellon University
Duolingo’s Language and Literacy Apps
Duolingo offers a mobile and web app for learning languages through short lessons, and in 2020 it added Duolingo ABC, an app for early literacy. The company ended 2025 with more than 50 million daily active users.
Patents and Awards Held by Luis von Ahn
Von Ahn holds 13 US patents, including one for reCAPTCHA. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship and the IEEE Frances E. Allen Medal for his work on human computation and online learning.
