Alexander Guttenplan

Who is Alexander Guttenplan?

Alexander Guttenplan is a PhD student at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, known as the captain of the team that won University Challenge in 2010, scoring 315 points to 100 against St John's College, Oxford in the final. His performance in this has been compared with that of Gail Trimble. He also 'got the better' of presenter Jeremy Paxman, in an exchange which became an Internet sensation. He has hundreds of fans who call themselves Guttenfans: "Guys want to be him, girls want to be with him!". He also took part in a special edition of Only Connect, leading a team from University Challenge against the champions of the first series of Only Connect, the Crossworders.

Guttenplan is from a Jewish and Greek family. His father is of U.S. Jewish origin, and mother from Greece: both are writers, D. D. Guttenplan and Maria Margaronis. He has two siblings. He was educated at the Hall School Hampstead and Westminster School where he showed prodigious talent in a school quiz at the age of eleven. His hobbies include ceilidh, sailing, rowing, science fiction and browsing Wikipedia. He was chairbeing of the Cambridge University Science Fiction Society.