Keith Sawyer is professor of psychology and education at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is one of the country's leading researchers on creativity, innovation, and learning. He is the author or editor of eight books, including " Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation," and " The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences," a manifesto of the new science of learning.
Utilizing a hands-on approach to research, Dr. Sawyer has spent a year in a preschool observing how children learn and studied Chicago improvisational theater groups to study group dynamics. He is also a jazz pianist, and has studied improvisation among jazz musicians.