Alex Mullen (born 3 March 1992) is an American former memory competitor, three-time world memory champion, and physician.Jordyn Taylor, "The Person With the World's Best Memory Is a Millennial From the US", in Mic (media company), March 2016. The first American to win the world title, he won for three consecutive years the 2015, 2016, and 2017 World Memory Championships and held the IAM world No. 1 ranking from 2016 to 2019. He was also the 2022 and 2023 Memory League World Champion. Along with his wife, he runs Mullen Memory - a nonprofit which "provides free resources exploring memory palaces as learning tools."
Personal life Mullen was born in Princeton, New Jersey.Callie Bryant, "World Memory Champion, Oxford Native Alex Mullen Teaches Memorization", in HottyToddy.com, 2 February 2016. He grew up in Oxford, Mississippi and attended Oxford High School, where he competed on the varsity swimming and tennis teams.Gary Pettus, Memory Serves Alex Mullen, New World Mental Athlete Champion", in University of Mississippi News, 28 January 2016. In his senior year, Mullen was a National Merit Finalist and fourth award winner at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for a team project with his future wife, Cathy Chen."Oxford High School National Merit Finalists", 2010."Intel ISEF 2010 Grand Awards Ceremony", 14 May 2010. He attended Johns Hopkins University and studied biomedical engineering and applied mathematics."2014 JHU Engineering Convocation Awards Ceremony" , 5 May 2014. He received his M.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 2019. Both he and his wife received the Jim and Donna Barksdale Scholarship to cover the full cost of attendance of medical school. In 2020, he began a diagnostic radiology residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.Rosemary Hutzler Raun, "The Mnemonist", in Johns Hopkins Magazine, 9 October 2020.
Notable competitions 2015 World Memory Championships (16-18 Dec., Chengdu, China): 1st place overall. Mullen became the tenth individual, and the first American, to win the world championship since its inception in 1991. He also received the title of international grandmaster of memory, the highest title bestowed by the World Memory Sports Council, at this event.
2016 USA Memory Championship (9 May, Hershey, Pennsylvania): 1st place overall. Mullen became the ninth individual to win the American national championship since its inception in 1998.List of USA Memory Champions US Open (2–3 July, Los Angeles, California): 1st place overall. With 8,794 total points, Mullen achieved the then-highest total score in memory sports history (taking into account adjustments in scoring standards), giving him the world No. 1 ranking. Memoriad (8-10 Nov., Las Vegas, Nevada): gold: speed cards, hour numbers, silver: names and faces, spoken numbers. European Open (3-4 Dec., London, UK): 1st place overall. With 9,143 total points, Mullen broke his earlier mark for the then-highest total score. World Memory Championships (15-17 Dec., Singapore): 1st place overall.
2017 World Memory Championships (IAM) (1-3 Dec., Jakarta, Indonesia): 1st place overall. Most world records broken at the event, 4. With 9,061 total points (adjusted), Mullen broke his earlier record for the then-highest total score.
2021 Pan American Open (Memory League) (15-16 May): 1st place overall. Mullen competed alongside 15 other online qualifiers using the Memory League format, which consists of digital, head-to-head matches composed of shorter disciplines. In the final, Mullen defeated Ryo Kobayashi of Japan.
2022 Memory League World Championship (16-31 Jan.): 1st place overall. Mullen competed alongside 15 other online qualifiers in the fourth rendition of the Memory League World Championship, first held in 2014 under the name Extreme Memory Tournament. In the final, Mullen defeated 2019 IAM World Memory Champion Andrea Muzii of Italy.
2023 Memory League World Championship (8-29 Jan.): 1st place overall. Mullen again defeated Andrea Muzii in the final.
Records Mullen has held world records in 12 different memory sport disciplines, with the majority-minority of them involving the memorization of numbers or playing cards, none of which is standing as of 1st of October 2019 (all of which have gone extinct by now). He is the first person to memorize the order of a deck of playing cards in under 20 seconds at an official competition. He is also the first to memorize more than 3,000 decimal digits in one hour.
Media appearances Mullen was a two-time contestant on the final season of the Chinese television program The Brain in 2017, defeating his opponent Wang Feng, the 2010 and 2011 World Memory Champion, by accurately recalling the airline routes, departure and arrival locations, and times of 50 flights. He was also a contestant on Superhuman, the American version of The Brain, winning his episode by memorizing a deck of cards flashed onscreen at two cards per second.Andy Belt, "Magnificent memory means money for Oxford native Alex Mullen" , in OxfordEagle.com, 29 June 2017. Mullen has been featured in The New Yorker,Ian Frisch, "Lessons from America's First Memory World Champion", in NewYorker.com, 18 May 2016. BBC,Helen Thomson, "The man who thinks like Sherlock Holmes", in BBC.com, 12 April 2016. CNN,Michael Nedelman, "Hack your brain to remember almost anything", in CNN.com, 9 March 2017. The Washington Post,Devin Powell, "This man memorized a shuffled deck of cards in 18.65 seconds. Here’s how.", in WashingtonPost.com, 16 May 2016. Lifehacker,Melanie Pinola, "Learn How to Memorize Information With This Video From a World Memory Champion", in Lifehacker.com, 29 March 2016. Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta,Sanjay Gupta, "How to memorize a deck of cards under 17 seconds", in CNN.com, 22 June 2017. Today,A. Pawlowski, "How to remember faces, names and more: Tips from the world memory champion", in Today.com, 16 June 2016. Mic, Guinness World Records,Asha Leo, "LIVE: Meet World Memory Champion 2015 - Alex Mullen", in Facebook.com, 17 October 2016. Men's Health,Tyler Daswick, "How to Build a Better Memory", in MensHealth.com, 7 August 2017. The Guardian,Daniel Lavelle, "How to avoid losing your memory in the digital age", in TheGuardian.com, 13 November 2018. and The New York Times,Bryan Clark, "Train Your Brain Like a Memory Champion", in NYTimes.com, 9 January 2019. among others.
See also Mnemonist Extreme Memory Tournament List of Johns Hopkins University people List of University of Mississippi alumni
References
External links Mullen Memory