Nelson Dellis

Nelson Dellis, a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Computer Science, broke a national record on Saturday, March 6 at the 13th Annual USA Memory Championship by remembering the first 178 digits of a randomly generated 500-digit number, with only five minutes to study it.

Dellis’s mark in Speed Numbers was eleven better than the previous record, set last year by the defending champion, Ronnie White, a Texan who started competing in 2008. To master his memory, Dellis has used special memorization techniques for the past year and a half. He gives cards and numbers associations he can visualize—the name of a famous person, an action, an object.

In addition to improving his memory by practicing, Dellis is greatly motivated by his grandmother, who died last summer from Alzheimer’s disease, a brain-debilitating disease that specifically affects memory loss, thinking, and behavior. Aside from continuing in future Memory Championships, Dellis plans to climb Mt. Everest next year to raise money for Alzheimer’s research.