John Platt is a senior researcher in the Knowledge Tools Group at Microsoft Corporation. Platt has worked for Microsoft since 1997. Prior to Microsoft, Platt had served as Director of Research at Synaptics. Platt was born in Elgin, Illinois and matriculated at California State University, Long Beach at the age of 14. After graduating from CSULB at the age of 18, Platt enrolled in a computer science PhD program at California Institute of Technology. Platt has an Erdős-Bacon number of 6.