Biography
Daniel Kilov is a Memory Athlete. He is capable of memorizing a shuffled deck of cards in less than two minutes, and over 100 random digits in five minutes. Daniel has employed his memory techniques to great effect in his studies and was awarded the Monash Achievement award in 2009 for his studies in the Bachelor of Arts, which he completed in 2011. In 2012 he graduated with 1st Class Honors from the Macquarie University and is currently undertaking a PhD at ANU. He is also working as a memory coach and speaker. In addition, he is a member of Mensa, the high IQ society, and has written on memory for the Mensa journal TableAus.
At the 2011 Australian Memory Championships Daniel managed to secure second place behind his coach and mentor, Tansel Ali, and third place in the Australian Open Memory Championships. He also broke the Australian record for the abstract images event and is the official holder of that record, having memorized the order of 99 abstract shapes.
In 2012 he repeated the feat, breaking his own record by memorizing 115 abstract images and again securing second place.
Having struggled with organizational skills as a symptom of his poor memory all through high school, Daniel sought out methods to improve his memory. It was then that he discovered the “Art of Memory”, a loosely associated group of mnemonic principles and techniques used to organize memory impressions, improve recall, and assist in the combination and ‘invention’ of ideas. These techniques are sometimes referred to as mnemotechnics, and are employed by memory athletes to perform remarkable feats of learning.
Shortly afterwards, Daniel sought out Australia’s most successful memory athlete, Tansel Ali.
Tansel is the Australian Memory Champion and, in addition to his success in competition, he also memorized the Sydney Yellow Pages in only 24 days. Daniel was trained privately by Tansel and, through his understanding of the fundamental principles that underlie effective memorizing, has adapted the techniques he has learned to make them more relevant to the day-to-day demands on our brains.
Since then, Daniel has become a sought after speaker and educator and has been described as one of “the nation’s, finest thinkers and communicators” 1. He was a speaker at the 2011 Australian Mensa Conference and was the opening speaker at the TEDxMacquarie and TEDxCanberra conferences in 2012. In 2014 his audiences included those of TEDxManly and the Mind and Its Potential conference.
Daniel believes that we are all mental athletes; in a competitive world, we all need to be able to remember more, to be more creative, innovative and focused. In this sense, the techniques used by memory athletes should be available to everyone.
Daniel at TEDxManly:
Email:Daniel.Kilov@gmail.com
Mental Athlete 
Hi Daniel,
I hear you can now memorize a deck of cards in around 2 minutes or less… You should update your website!
Is there a place that we can make a donation? Buy you a beer? 🙂
Hi lhgrubbs,
Thank you for your generous offer. At the moment there is no way to provide financial assistance to the website. But you can definitely help me on my mission of sharing the techniques of the Art of Memory with the world by sharing my posts and talks via social media or email. Thank you for your support thus far! Have a memorable new year!
Daniel,
I have been working on some of Dominic O’Brien’s techniques. This is awesome! One thing I am wondering is if there is any work that explains how to use these techniques and apply them to books that people read (ex in school or even stories). It seems many of the techniques are focused on memorizing simpler concepts like numbers or objects. Any thoughts on this?
Hi , Daniel,
This is Guna from India, I just got introduction about memory by reading Dominic O brien’s books, and I am teaching kids to improve their memory skills in local schools, Most of the techniques are awesome. I am still looking for more information about Memory. I am not a an memory athlete, But I like these techniques . Spread this kind of information around the globe . This will help many people.
With Best wishes,
Guna
Thanks for your insights at TedX yesterday- fascinating workshop
Fascinating insights. I always have difficulties when it comes to memorizing numbers and facts. Will give the card memorization a try with the creative imaging technique to memorize them. You are an inspiration indeed.