Vitalik Buterin is the founder and chief scientist of Ether. Born in Russia, he emigrated with his father from Moscow to Toronto, Canada after his parents divorced when he was 5 years old. At the age of 12, he was able to program games in C++, was a bronze medal winner of the Olympia Information Award, a Till Scholarship, and the 2014 World Technology Award, and graduated from the University of Waterloo, Canada, just eight months after enrolling.