Dr. Keith Sawyer, a professor of psychology and education at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, is one of the country's leading scientific experts on creativity. He combines this scientific expertise with a strong hands-on background in real-world creativity.

After receiving his computer science degree from MIT in 1982, he began his career with a two-year stint designing video games for Atari. His titles included Food Fight, Neon, and Magician.

From 1984 to 1990, he was a principal at Kenan Systems Corporation, where he worked as a management consultant on innovative technologies. His clients included Ciitcorp, AT&T, and U.S. West.

In 1990 Dr. Sawyer began his doctoral studies in psychology, where he studied creativity with Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (author of best selling books such as Flow and Creativity.

Since receiving his Ph.D. in 1994, he has dedicated his career to research on collaboration and group creativity.

He has been a jazz pianist for over 30 years, and spent several years playing piano with Chicago improv theater groups.

Dr. Sawyer has published widely on collaboration and creativity. Group Genius is his tenth book; his previous books include Explaining Creativity and Creating Conversations, and he has published over 50 scientific articles.

His research has been featured on CNN, Fox News, TIME and other media. A popular speaker, he lectures to corporations, associations and universities around the world on creativity and innovation.