{"id":"a64b03c9-397c-4526-af5d-0efbd8cee555","slug":"marina-umaschi-bers","name":"Marina Umaschi Bers","bioBrief":"Co-founder and Chief Scientist at KinderLab Robotics, maker of the KIBO screen-free robotics kit for early childhood STEM education. She is an Augustus Long Professor of Education at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College, where she heads the interdisciplinary DevTech Research Group. Over two decades she has conceived and evaluated educational technologies from robotics to virtual worlds, and co-developed ScratchJr, a free programming app for children ages 5 to 7 used by over 52 million children. Originally from Argentina, she came to the US in 1994 and earned a Master's in Educational Media from Boston University and an MSc and PhD from the MIT Media Laboratory working with Seymour Papert.","priorExits":null,"nationality":"Argentine-American","verificationPosture":"reported","aliases":[],"sources":[{"url":"https://kinderlabrobotics.com/about/","title":"About KinderLab Robotics","sourceName":"KinderLab Robotics"}],"reviewStatus":"reviewed","createdAt":"2026-08-11T07:04:21.083Z","updatedAt":"2026-08-14T01:13:33.297Z","educations":[],"companyRoles":[{"id":"bda6e0bb-8566-48ea-a7c5-c807469c7394","personId":"a64b03c9-397c-4526-af5d-0efbd8cee555","companyId":"23320e78-29e0-44da-a09c-7a7bb8bccf0c","role":"chief_scientist","roleTitle":"Co-founder & Chief Scientist","startDate":null,"endDate":null,"currentRole":true,"roleBasis":"verified_secondary","createdAt":"2026-08-11T07:04:21.839Z","company":{"slug":"kibo","name":"KinderLab Robotics"}}],"boardRoles":[],"investorRoles":[],"foundings":[{"id":"ec2b5f7d-637b-4816-94f1-e397048af7ce","personId":"a64b03c9-397c-4526-af5d-0efbd8cee555","companyId":"23320e78-29e0-44da-a09c-7a7bb8bccf0c","foundingDate":null,"cofounderStatus":null,"stillAtCompany":true,"createdAt":"2026-08-11T07:04:38.670Z","company":{"slug":"kibo","name":"KinderLab Robotics"}}]}