Profile: Lawrence Chernin

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Lawrence is the founder of BrainiacDating.com and several intelligence-themed singles groups with thousands of members across the US and Canada. But his background is a hundred and eighty degrees different from anything to do with relationships! Lawrence has over thirteen years of experience as a chip designer in Silicon Valley and has worked in different roles from manager and architect for several large and well as startup companies.
 
Prior to that he was an astrophysics researcher at UC Berkeley where he published over thirty-five articles on the subject of the formation of stars. So he brings a unique set of scientific skills to dating and relationships - which is all about chemistry anyway!

Back in October of 2008 he started his first singles group in New York City as a way to find a girlfriend - someone who also loved nature, exploration, learning and museums just like him. The idea was to have a casual, friendly and fun time, and to learn something along the way but not be too stuffy or intellectual - so anyone who wanted to could participate. As the New York group became more and more popular he also launched similar groups in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and Vancouver, Canada. Together these groups with their volunteer organizers have hosted over 350 events in the past year and a half.

In order to complement the events he built a website for online dating: BrainiacDating.com which on the surface may have appeared just like any other online dating site, except the profile questions were geared towards intelligent themes such as listing favorite authors, games or music and describing interests that covered plants to physics to political science. Members should feel comfortable being themselves, especially their desire to find an intelligent companion. The featured members on Brainiac Dating were chosen for having interesting and positive messages in their profiles, instead of just being hot-looking as is common on other dating sites.

To his pleasant surprise the Brainiac Dating website way outgrew the singles group that it sprung from and started to gain members from across the internet. The website is completely free and has over 27,000 members. For those who just want to make new smart friends, he also created BrainiacConnection.com - a social network, and BrainiacForum.com - a chat site.

"At first I realized that the term "brainiac" might have a negative connotation of geeks with pocket protectors or names of science fiction monsters, but then when I thought in more practical mode - this name was luckily still available as a web address, and was short and catchy enough that people would remember it. The term is not even found in some dictionaries, so it is fair game to mold in a better way. So it stuck with me, but the challenge would be to redefine the term such as to make it wholly positive so that it would be appealing to all. My happiness would be lifted to see more and more people wanting to want to be "brainiacs" and to value learning, thinking, and creativity in all the relationships they form."

Company: Brainiac Dating
Website: BrainiacDating.com