About

Socos Labs was created by Dr. Vivienne Ming after a career founding companies and nonprofits to overcome challenges in education, the workforce, and health. Dr. Ming launched Socos Labs to combine her varied work with that of other creative experts and expand their impact on global policy issues, both inside companies and throughout our communities.

Too many lives are robbed of their potential, some even before the moment of their birth, and the creative growth of the planet is a shadow of its potential. Dr. Ming is intimately familiar with this loss, homeless and lost in her twenties before redeeming her life. Now she wants her own son and daughter to know a world in which every child owns the reigns to their own potential.

Socos Labs is a for-profit LLC. Its sister organization, the Socos Foundation is a 510(c)(3) organization working on nonprofit projects to maximize human potential. To learn more about the Socos Foundation, email us info@socos.org.

Leadership

Dr. Vivienne Ming

Executive Chair & Co-Founder

Frequently featured for her research and inventions in The Financial Times, The Atlantic, Quartz and the New York Times, Dr. Vivienne Ming is a theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and author. She co-founded Socos Labs, her fifth company, an independent think tank exploring the future of human potential. Dr. Ming launched Socos Labs to combine her varied work with that of other creative experts and expand their impact on global policy issues, both inside companies and throughout our communities. Previously, Vivienne was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, pursuing her research in cognitive neuroprosthetics. In her free time, Vivienne has invented AI systems to help treat her diabetic son, predict manic episodes in bipolar sufferers weeks in advance, and reunited orphan refugees with extended family members. She sits on boards of numerous companies and nonprofits including StartOut, The Palm Center, Cornerstone Capital, Platypus Institute, Shiftgig, Zoic Capital, and SmartStones. Dr. Ming also speaks frequently on her AI-driven research into inclusion and gender in business. For relaxation, she is a wife and mother of two.

Dr. Norma Ming

Co-Founder

Dr. Norma Ming is a learning scientist and educational technology thought leader who works at the intersection of research and development, policy, and practice. A former high school and university educator, she is now Supervisor of Research in the San Francisco Unified School District’s Research, Planning, and Accountability department, where she coordinates results-oriented research to help the district implement its strategic plan. She merges a pragmatic understanding of the teaching enterprise with a long-term, systemic vision of how research can illuminate and policy can facilitate better learning. Previously, she taught as a lecturer in Education in Math, Science, and Technology at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. She earned an A.B. with honors in chemistry at Harvard University and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology in the Program for Interdisciplinary Educational Research at Carnegie Mellon University.