Nathan Myhrvold looms as one of today's great polymaths. Master's degrees in geophysics and space physics at age 19, doctorate in mathematical and theoretical physics and an apprenticeship under Stephen Hawking, presidency of a software company-and all this before becoming Microsoft's chief technology officer. He spearheaded the founding of Microsoft Research, one of the world's most influential computer science labs, and played a leading role in a number of the company's development projects, including some that contributed to Windows NT and Windows CE. Along the way he found time to train as a gourmet chef and learn to drive race cars. More recently, Myhrvold's been digging for dinosaurs and mastering photography: his office is adorned with photos from trips to Hawaiian volcanoes, Alaskan tundra and the California desert.

But for Myhrvold, now 42 and with a fortune of several hundred million dollars, it is only a beginning. In January 2000, even before formally leaving Bill Gates's fold, he cofounded Intellectual Ventures with former Microsoft chief software architect Edward Jung. Not exactly a venture capital firm because it's funded by the founders, mainly to pursue their own ideas, the company is exploring everything from new forms of computing to biotech and genomics. Myhrvold is also thinking about launching the Invention Factory, an effort to unite leading inventors and change the way inventing is done (see "The Invention Factory," TR May 2002). TR editor at large Robert Buderi visited Myhrvold in Bellevue, WA, to learn about his vision of a world in the midst of an unprecedented explosion of technological growth.