Biography

Vishnu is the CEO of Matter Intelligence, a remote-sensing company advancing sensors and geospatial AI to address the world's most pressing data challenges. His journey in exploration and innovation began at 16 when he launched a homemade weather balloon into the stratosphere (over 120,000 feet), using commercial and homemade components to record Earth's surface and atmosphere. This early experiment in remote sensing laid the groundwork for what would become Matter Intelligence.

Pursuing his passion for spacecraft design and technology, Vishnu earned a degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech. At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he served as the Flight Director of the MER rover Opportunity. He was also the Cognizant Engineer (CogE) for SuperCam, NASA's flagship instrument aboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. In this JPL Lead Engineer role, he facilitated the entire development of the spacecraft’s subsystem, successfully delivering SuperCam to the Martian surface. Vishnu was in charge of all payloads during the landing of Perseverance on Mars, ensuring the instruments were ready for groundbreaking scientific exploration, and he led the first microphone recording on another planet.

Working on these missions, Vishnu experienced the excitement of planetary exploration and the honor of contributing to discoveries on worlds beyond our own. Inspired by the potential to apply advanced space technologies to address Earth's environmental challenges, he attended Harvard Business School as a Goldsmith Fellow, where he founded Matter Intelligence with Nathan and Tom. Matter delivers never-captured perception data to industries worldwide.