Mental Tools for Creativity | Technology and Society Forum

Robert Root-Bernstein
Professor of Physiology
Michigan State University

NJIT Campus Center Ballroom
Sept 19, 2007, 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Although every creative product is different, creative people in all disciplines think in very similar ways. A study of hundreds of inventors, scientists, writers, artists, dancers, musicians, and entrepreneurs reveals that there are specific and fundamental "tools" for creative thinking. Yet, we learn to use few, if any, of these tools through formal education, at any level. Instead, we're taught "languages" such as English, mathematics, and graphics. But what good is having these languages at our command if we have nothing original to communicate?

Robert Root-Bernstein will address this challenge in his Technology and Society Forum presentation. He will examine specific tools for creativity and demonstrate how each can be applied in practical ways to scientific and technological innovation, in a number of disciplines. He will also explain how truly creative people leverage entrepreneurial success with such tools.

Root-Bernstein, who holds bachelor's and doctoral degrees from Princeton University, was awarded one of the the first MacArthur Fellowships wile a post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. This allowed him to develop novel theories of auto immunity and molecular evolution as he also investigate the essential elements of scientific creativity. A consultant to major biotech, pharmaceutical and chemical companies, Root-Bernstein is the author of over a hundred peer-reviewed articles and the holder of more than a dozen patents either granted or pending. His books include Discovering; Rethinking AIDS; Honey, and, Maggots and Other Medical Marvels; and Spark of Genius.