About the Hosts

Matthieu Ricard has lived and worked in the Himalayan region for the last thirty years. He is a Buddhist monk and resides at Shechen Monastery in Nepal.

Born in France in 1946, he grew up among the personalities and ideas of Paris' intellectual circles and worked for his PHD degree in biochemistry at the Institute Pasteur. After completing his doctoral thesis in 1972, Mr. Ricard left his scientific career to concentrate on Tibetan Buddhist studies. For over thirty years he has lived and studied in the Himalayas with the greatest living teachers of that tradition.

Mr. Ricard's photographs of the spiritual masters, the landscapes and the people of the Himalayas are internationally sought after. Henri Cartier-Bresson has said of his work, "Matthieu's spiritual life and his camera are one, from which springs these images, fleeting and eternal."

He is the author and photographer of "Journey to Enlightenment" and "Monk Dancers of Tibet" and "Buddhist Himalayas." The dialogue with his father, Jean-Francois Revel, "The Monk and the Philosopher," was a best seller in Europe, and "The Quantum and the Lotus" reflects his long-standing interest in science and Buddhism. His latest book "Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill" explores the meaning and fulfillment of happiness.

Matthieu is an active participant in the cutting edge scientific research on the effects of meditation on the brain. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East. Through Shechen Projects, Matthieu devotes his time to developing and overseeing an inspiring number of humanitarian and cultural projects in Tibet, India, and Nepal that include medical clinics, schools, and orphanages. For more information http:shechen.org

Meng is Google's own Jolly Good Fellow, which nobody can deny. He is perhaps best known for Google's famed "Meng's Wall", which he created in his own image (almost literally). Meng is an early employee at Google, he helped create Google's first mobile search service, first search-quality evaluation system, first extended Chinese web index, first curriculum for emotional intelligence, and worked on many other random things. In his youth, Meng was a winner of many prestigious awards, including the championship of Singapore's National Software Competition, and the Tan Kar Kee Young Inventor's Award. When Meng grows up, he wants to save the world.