Introduction
Gabriel Otte was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1988. He was raised there by his grandparents until he was nine years old. In September 1998, both he and his brother moved to California where they were reunited with their parents. He then attended San Lorenzo Valley High School in Felton, CA and graduated as the valedictorian in 2007. In the fall of 2007, he began his post-secondary education at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
Gabriel began to learn about computer programming when he was ten. At the age of thirteen, he created his first application for the public called OSXplanet. It is a program that projects a live image of the Earth with the current clouds, volcanos, earthquakes and satellites onto your desktop. Since its debut in 2003, OSXplanet has gained immense popularity and has gained recognition in many areas including the MacWorld magazine. In addition, it has been the most popular application of the week on Macupdate.com on numerous occasions and it has been distributed via CDs bundled in various magazines. The program was also used in various forms of media including the Hollywood movie Elizabethtown. More recently, development of the application has been halted due to Gabriel's studies at Cornell.
Gabriel's early career in software engineering has led him to many other areas in the world of computer science. After his senior year of high school, Gabriel began to work at Filemaker Inc., as an intern on the Bento team. He then continued to work for other companies including the iPhone team at Apple Inc.
At Cornell, Gabriel has worked on a couple of research projects in the area of computer science including artificial intelligence but has now moved on to other projects that are more relevant to his field of study. Currently, Gabriel is a junior at Cornell majoring in Chemistry and Computational Biology. In addition to his classes, he is involved in research in the Biomedical Engineering Department looking into causes and possible treatments for the Alzheimer's disease. After his undergraduate studies, he is planning to continue in the world of academia by attending graduate school in computational molecular biology or biochemistry.
In addition to his academic studies, Gabriel works for various non-profit organizations and participates in other programs for social justice and his religion. He is involved in various organizations including the Orthodox Christian Fellowship, The Sharing Community, Orthodox Youth Outreach, Invisible Children and Center for Student Missions. As an Orthodox Christian, he attends church on a regular basis and also serves as a reader.
His hobbies include surfing, rock climbing, swimming, basketball, kung-fu, classical guitar, video photography, website design, and skiing.